Will AI replace Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers?
AI reaches most of this job’s work.
55/100
Very high exposure
More exposed to AI than 86% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 28% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 55% of the work
What the job involves
Sell goods or services door-to-door or on the street.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(3)
- Answer questions about product features and benefits.
- Develop prospect lists.
- Write and record orders for merchandise or enter orders into computers.
Within reach(3)
- Explain products or services and prices and demonstrate use of products.
- Distribute product samples or literature that details products or services.
- Arrange buying parties and solicit sponsorship of such parties to sell merchandise.
Out of reach(6)
- Deliver merchandise and collect payment.
- Order or purchase supplies.
- Circulate among potential customers or travel by foot, truck, automobile, or bicycle to deliver or sell merchandise or services.
- Persuade customers to purchase merchandise or services.
- Set up and display sample merchandise at parties or stands.
and 1 more
Also called
Newspaper Carrier · Canvasser · Cigarette Vendor · Hawker · Lei Seller · Peddler · Independent Distributor · Sales Representative (Sales Rep)
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics