Will AI replace Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products?
Estimated risk score: 63 out of 100
Moderate replacement risk
Estimate from published task research, not reviewed by a person · how we estimate
Within about 19 points for 4 in 5 of the jobs we checked (44 to 82).
For the occupation as a whole, from ratings of its 20 O*NET tasks published in 2023 and calibrated to our hand scores. A specialty inside it can sit higher or lower.
O*NET-SOC 13-1022.00 · Business and Financial Operations
Tasks rated in 2023 as ones AI could do or speed up
Tasks a GPT-4-class model could do, or do in half the time or less: 6 of its 20 rated tasks. In O*NET’s words.
- Provide clerks with information to print on price tags, such as price, mark-ups or mark-downs, manufacturer number, season code, or style number.
- Authorize payment of invoices or return of merchandise.
- Monitor and analyze sales records, trends, or economic conditions to anticipate consumer buying patterns, company sales, and needed inventory.
- Recommend mark-up rates, mark-down rates, or merchandise selling prices.
- Compare transportation options to determine the most energy-efficient options.
- Monitor competitors' sales activities by following their advertisements in newspapers or other media.
Tasks rated in 2023 as not sped up by AI
Tasks such a model was rated as not speeding up or taking over: 2 of its 20 rated tasks. In O*NET’s words.
- Conduct sales meetings to introduce new merchandise.
- Train or supervise sales or clerical staff.
What the job is
Buy merchandise or commodities, other than farm products, for resale to consumers at the wholesale or retail level, including both durable and nondurable goods. Analyze past buying trends, sales records, price, and quality of merchandise to determine value and yield. Select, order, and authorize payment for merchandise according to contractual agreements. May conduct meetings with sales personnel and introduce new products. May negotiate contracts. Includes assistant wholesale and retail buyers of nonfarm products.
Also called: Grocery Buyer, Merchant, Purveyor, Tie Buyer, Tradesman, Gold Buyer, Retail Buyer, Fashion Buyer.
Closest jobs we score by hand
In the same field (Business and Financial Operations). Different jobs, each scored by a person.
Source. This site includes information from the O*NET 30.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. (O*NET, CC BY 4.0.) Task ratings: Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock (2023), “GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models”, data used under the MIT licence (licence texts). Our change: we averaged the ratings over this occupation’s tasks and calibrated them to our 0–100 scale. It is not a prediction about any one person and not career advice. Disagree? Write to hello@yourstopwashit.com. How we estimate