Service and sales workers · code 5221
Shop keepers
Software can do the books. Knowing your regulars is still a shopkeeper.
Budgets and stock and sales records are the one task AI could take a fair chunk of. Ordering goods, stocktaking and handling returns are mostly out of its reach.
What they actually do (and what else they get called)
Shopkeepers operate small retail shops either independently or with support from a small number of others. Tasks include - (a) determining product mix, stock and price levels for goods to be sold; (b) purchasing and ordering goods for sale from markets, wholesalers and other suppliers; (c) budgeting and maintaining records of stock levels and financial transactions; (d) determining prices and displaying goods for sale; (e) selling goods to customers and advising them on product use; (f) examining returned goods and deciding on appropriate action; (g) taking inventory of goods in stock. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Grocer - Newsagent - Shopkeeper Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Shop manager - 1420 - Market stallholder - 5211 Note Only operators of small shops for whom the management and supervision of staff are not a significant component of the work are classified in Unit Group 5221: Shopkeepers. Operators of shops where management tasks and supervision of staff are significant and frequent elements of the work are classified in Unit Group 1420: Retail and Wholesale Trade Managers. Staff who control and direct the activities of shop sales assistants, checkout operators and other workers, but who do not take responsibility for determining product mix, overall setting of prices, budgets, staffing levels, selection and recruitment are classified in Unit Group 5222: Shop Supervisors.
- retail entrepreneur
Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.
57 / 100
Changing significantly
AI could do a real share of the everyday tasks. The job is changing shape, not vanishing.
Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.
The ILO's official verdict: Exposed: Gradient 2
345 of 427 for holding up against AI
Not quite your week? Make it yours ↓
Why this score?
The ILO rated each of this job's 7 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 43.1 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 43.1 = 56.9.
That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Exposed: Gradient 2”: A good share of the tasks are affected.
This job rates 25.5 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.
from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use
Man v Bot · compare
Who holds up better?
Shop keepers 57
vGo on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.
Man v Bot
Where the bot helps, and where the human wins
Bot
What AI takes
The routine stuff. You may not miss it.
- Books and records.
- Stock and ordering.
- Pricing.
Man
What people still do better
Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.
- Serving customers.
- Choosing what to sell.
- Running the shop day to day.
Both
What's arriving
New work that only exists because the AI does.
- Selling online as well as in store.
- Card and phone payments.
- Delivery apps.
Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.
Meet your two rivals
They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.
The AI
Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.
Threat level: Medium
48 could do without you
It could take over some of the work, and help with more. It could help with 73 of 100.
The robot
The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.
How much it matters here: Lower
26 how hands-on
Not much of this job needs hands, so the robot can sit this one out.
So could a robot do the physical part?
Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.
Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 6 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.
hands-on
and cramped
Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on
The small print
They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.
From O*NET, matched to one US job .
finger skill 7.1 · hand skill 7.1 · cramped spaces 4.7 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50
estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement
The job, task by task
Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.
AI's favourite task here scores 59, against an average of 43. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.
- 59
Budgeting and maintaining records of stock levels and financial transactions
Medium - 49
Purchasing and ordering goods for sale from markets, wholesalers and other suppliers
Low - 45
Selling goods to customers and advising them on product use
Low - 45
Determining product mix, stock and price levels for goods to be sold
Low - 39
Determining prices and displaying goods for sale
Low - 35
Taking inventory of goods in stock.
Low - 29
Examining returned goods and deciding on appropriate action
Low
7 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's
from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use
New · the weekly task audit
Your week, your score
The score above assumes shopkeepers spend the same time on every task. You don't. Slide each task to how much of your week it takes, and we'll re-weight the same ILO ratings to fit your job.
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
Your score
57 / 100
Same as the job as a whole, so far.
Move the sliders to make it yours.
The job as a whole: 57 / 100
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Sidekick or replacement?
A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.
- AI helps you
- 73
- AI does it for you
- 48
Sidekick wins, by 25 points.
How good a match is this?
One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.
estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 1421
Meanwhile, in real life…
Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?
Out of every 100 conversations
worked through it together handed it over
The small print
Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job. This job makes up 0.21% of the conversations.
These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.
observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product
So, should shopkeepers be worried?
Short answer: not worried, but paying attention. The job is changing.
Parts of it are changing. Budgets and records are rated Medium; buying, selling, product mix, pricing, stock and returns are Low. Accounting and stock software take on admin; running the shop stays human.
Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.
Where this job could lead
None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →
How are the neighbours doing?
There are 39 jobs in the “Service and sales workers” family, averaging 75. This one is below the family average.
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- Beauticians and related workers 82
- Fire-fighters 82
- Cooks 82
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- Protective services workers not elsew… 80
- Domestic housekeepers 80
- Security guards 80
- Driving instructors 80
- Personal services workers not elsewhe… 79
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- Companions and valets 78
- Cleaning and housekeeping supervisors… 78
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- Food service counter attendants 76
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