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Service and sales workers · code 5223

Shop sales assistants

Shop sales assistants sell a range of goods and services directly to the public or on behalf of retail and wholesale establishments, and explain the functions and qualities of these goods and services. Tasks include - (a) determining customer requirements and advising on product range, price, delivery, warranties and product use and care; (b) demonstrating and explaining to customers the establishment’s goods and services; (c) selling goods and services, accepting payment by a variety of payment methods, preparing sales invoices and recording sales using cash registers; (d) assisting with the ongoing management of stock such as product inventories, and participating in stock takes; (e) stacking and displaying goods for sale, and wrapping and packing goods sold. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Salesperson (retail establishment) - Salesperson (wholesale establishment) - Shop assistant Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Shop manager - 1420 - Kiosk salesperson - 5211 - Market salesperson - 5211 - Street stall salesperson - 5211 - Street food vendor - 5212 - Shopkeeper - 5221 - Checkout operator - 5230 - Food service counter attendant - 5246

The mildest of the ILO’s four “exposed” groups. It ranks 317 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • sales assistant
  • specialised seller
  • car leasing agent
  • sales processor
  • personal shopper
  • motor vehicles parts advisor
  • shop assistant

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

61.6
Holds up
against AI Exposed: Gradient 1

AI could take on 38.4 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 38.4 = 61.6

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

50
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs

31.9
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 36.6 · hand skill 30.5 · cramped spaces 28.8 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4 Hands-on, less fiddly work

Less fine handwork and fewer cramped spaces than a typical hands-on job. That clears one hurdle for machines. It doesn't mean machines are doing this work yet.

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 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 50 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, and for work like this robots are the bigger question.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 55, while the average is 38.4. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 55

    Selling goods and services, accepting payment by a variety of payment methods, preparing sales invoices and recording sales using cash registers

    Medium
  2. 47

    Determining customer requirements and advising on product range, price, delivery, warranties and product use and care

    Low
  3. 45

    Demonstrating and explaining to customers the establishment's goods and services

    Low
  4. 29.5

    Assisting with the ongoing management of stock such as product inventories and participating in stock takes

    Low
  5. 15.8

    Stacking and displaying goods for sale, and wrapping and packing goods sold.

    Very Low

5 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

4 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
63.3
AI does it for you
48.8

Helping wins by 14.5 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 6211, 6212, 6213, 6214

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Service and sales workers” group, averaging 74.7. This one is below that.