# AI for sales teams: which tasks to automate first Updated October 2026 Across the 14 million US jobs in sales, the work scores 51 of 100 for AI exposure, weighted by how many people do each job. AI can take on about 790 hours a year per full-time person, 40% of a working year. The task that frees the most hours across the team is to answer questions regarding the store and its merchandise, about 73 hours a year for each person who does it. AI exposure, weighted by employment 51 out of 100 High exposure Hours AI can take on 790 hours a year per full-time person Task time AI can do today 25% AI speeds up another 47% ## Tasks to automate first The 15 tasks where AI can take on the most hours across sales: how exposed each task is, how much of the job it takes and how many people do that job. Hours are per person in the role that does the task. [How we score each task](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/methodology/). | Task and who does it | AI exposure | | --- | --- | | Answer questions regarding the store and its merchandise. Store chatbots and knowledge bases answer product and store questions well. Done by retail salespeople. | 65% AI can do it 73 hours a year for each person in the role | | Compute sales prices, total purchases, and receive and process cash or credit payment. POS software totals sales, but staff handle cash and card payments. Done by retail salespeople. | 58% AI helps 66 hours a year for each person in the role | | Answer customers' questions, and provide information on procedures or policies. LLM assistants can answer policy questions from store documents. Done by cashiers. | 70% AI can do it 70 hours a year for each person in the role | | Place special orders or call other stores to find desired items. Searching stock and placing orders can run through software and agents. Done by retail salespeople. | 60% AI can do it 56 hours a year for each person in the role | | Establish or identify prices of goods, services, or admission, and tabulate bills, using calculators, cash registers, or optical price scanners. Scanners and registers already set prices; software does the tabulating. Done by cashiers. | 65% AI can do it 66 hours a year for each person in the role | ## What stays with people 28% of the task time across these roles needs a person, and the output of the rest still needs someone to check it. The tasks below take the most of that time. - **25%** AI can do it - **47%** AI helps - **28%** Needs a person - Greet customers and ascertain what each customer wants or needs. Retail salespeople, 12% exposed - Prepare merchandise for purchase or rental. Retail salespeople, 12% exposed - Receive payment by cash, check, credit cards, vouchers, or automatic debits. Cashiers, 15% exposed - Greet customers entering establishments. Cashiers, 3% exposed - Provide customers with product samples and catalogs. Sales representatives, 15% exposed ## Adoption path Start with the tasks where AI helps a person, then automate the routine ones, then give whole workflows to agents with a person approving the output. 1. ### Quick wins Reps get call summaries, follow-up drafts and account research before each meeting. Example: Compute sales prices. AI helps with 58% of the time. [AI governance](https://www.aigentcy.com/services/ai-governance/) 2. ### Workflow automation Lead scoring, CRM updates and follow-up sequences run as automations from the forms and inboxes you have. Example: Answer questions regarding the store and its merchandise. AI can do 65% of it. [Process automation](https://www.aigentcy.com/services/process-automation/) 3. ### Agents An agent qualifies inbound leads, books meetings and keeps the CRM current, and a rep takes every qualified call. 14 of the 15 tasks on this page are ones AI can do end to end, the work an agent takes on. [Private AI](https://www.aigentcy.com/services/private-ai/) ## Roles in sales 25 roles, each linked to its task-by-task score. Of the roles with at least 2% of the jobs, sales representatives of services score highest at 66, retail supervisors lowest at 43. 1. [Retail salespeople, 27.3% of the team, score **48** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/retail-salespeople/) 2. [Cashiers, 21.7% of the team, score **43** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/cashiers/) 3. [Sales representatives of services, 8.8% of the team, score **66** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/sales-representatives-of-services/) 4. [Sales representatives, 8.7% of the team, score **63** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/sales-representatives/) 5. [Retail supervisors, 7.9% of the team, score **43** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/retail-supervisors/) 6. [Sales managers, 4.5% of the team, score **45** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/sales-managers/) 7. [Stockbrokers, 3.4% of the team, score **64** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/stockbrokers/) 8. [Insurance agents, 3.4% of the team, score **57** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/insurance-sales-agents/) 9. [Rental clerks, 2.8% of the team, score **57** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/rental-clerks/) 10. [Technical sales representatives, 2% of the team, score **60** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/technical-sales-representatives/) 11. [Online merchants, 1.9% of the team, score **66** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/online-merchants/) 12. [Parts salespersons, 1.9% of the team, score **38** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/parts-salespersons/) 13. [Sales supervisors, 1.5% of the team, score **48** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/sales-supervisors/) 14. [Real estate agents, 1.4% of the team, score **54** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/real-estate-agents/) 15. [Advertising sales agents, 0.6% of the team, score **61** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/advertising-sales-agents/) 16. [Product demonstrators, 0.5% of the team, score **42** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/product-demonstrators/) 17. [Telemarketers, 0.4% of the team, score **76** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/telemarketers/) 18. [Travel agents, 0.4% of the team, score **68** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/travel-agents/) 19. [Sales engineers, 0.4% of the team, score **57** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/sales-engineers/) 20. [Real estate brokers, 0.3% of the team, score **57** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/real-estate-brokers/) 21. [Casino cashiers, 0.2% of the team, score **31** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/casino-cashiers/) 22. [Talent agents, 0.1% of the team, score **50** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/talent-agents/) 23. [Models, Counted under a related job in US data, score **36** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/models/) 24. [Door-to-door salespeople, Counted under a related job in US data, score **47** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/door-to-door-salespeople/) 25. [Solar sales representatives, Counted under a related job in US data, score **65** out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/solar-sales-representatives/) ## Questions about AI for sales teams Which tasks should a sales team automate first? The first task to automate is to answer questions regarding the store and its merchandise (65% exposed). Next come the tasks to compute sales prices (58%) and to answer customers' questions (70%). Together they free the most hours across the team. How many hours can AI save a sales team? About 790 hours a year per full-time person, 40% of a 2,000-hour working year. For a team of 10 that is about 7,900 hours, the time of 4.0 full-time people. The figure is the share of task time AI can remove today, weighted by how many people do each job. Which roles in a sales team are most exposed to AI? Of the roles with at least 2% of the jobs, sales representatives of services score highest, at 66 of 100, and retail supervisors lowest, at 43. Each role's page lists its tasks one by one. Will AI replace jobs in sales? AI can do 25% of the task time across these roles today. Another 47% gets faster with AI while a person stays in charge. 28% needs a person. One task that stays with people is to greet customers and ascertain what each customer wants or needs. Where should a sales team start with AI? With the quick wins: approved assistants for the tasks AI helps with, under a written AI policy. Then automate the 14 tasks on this page AI can do end to end. An AI audit maps the tasks in your team and ranks them the same way this page does. ## Next steps - [Case study: lead qualification and follow-up in Odoo](https://www.aigentcy.com/case-studies/odoo-lead-generation-automation/) ### Find the tasks to automate first in your team We map the tasks in your sales team, score each one the way this page does and build the automations that pay back first. [Book an AI audit](https://www.aigentcy.com/audit/) Occupation data from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and modified by Aigentcy. O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. Wage, employment and projection data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. EU occupation names from ESCO, European Commission. AI usage signals from the Anthropic Economic Index (CC BY) and Microsoft Research (CC BY 4.0). [Methodology and sources](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/methodology/). Scores © Aigentcy. Quote them with a link to the page.