Contact centre salespersons
Almost every task can be done with generative AI, with little uncertainty. This is where the change is biggest — and where switching makes most sense.
Exposure is not job loss: it shows how much of the work generative AI could do today. Whether that turns into transformation, productivity gains or cuts depends on employers, regulation — and on you.
0 = today’s generative AI cannot perform any of the job’s tasks, 100 = it could do all of them fully. The pale band is the spread across tasks.
Work out your own score ↓What can you do?
🤖 Written with AIThis text was written by artificial intelligence from the data points shown; it is built on verified figures but may contain mistakes.· 11/10/2026How is it made?
With an exposure score 61/100, routine call logging, appointment booking, and scripted pitching face heavy automation. While basic telemarketing volume declines, reps shifting toward complex, consultative outreach and nuanced customer relationship management retain valuable roles.
What changes
- Automated booking systems and conversational bots increasingly handle scheduling appointments for field sales representatives.
- Call analytics and speech recognition automate tracking performance metrics, call volumes, and success statistics.
- AI agents draft scripted email campaigns and execute routine first-touch telephone prospecting at scale.
What stays human
- Synthesizing competitor insights and nuanced market feedback raised during sensitive customer conversations.
- Overcoming complex objections and building genuine trust with skeptical or hesitant prospective buyers.
- Reading emotional cues in live dialogue to navigate high-stakes negotiations and personalized deals.
What to learn
- Mastering consultative B2B selling to move beyond transactional, script-driven outbound calling.
- Leveraging AI-driven CRM platforms and conversational intelligence tools to optimize lead qualification.
- Advanced negotiation and emotional intelligence training to handle complex objections effectively.
Task by task
The ILO scored every task of the occupation separately, as the average of two AI models (GPT-4o and Gemini). The pale band is the range between the two models' scores, the dot the ILO's final score (for a few tasks expert review placed it outside the band).
- Arranging appointments for sales representatives76
- Maintaining statistics of calls made and successes achieved72
- Submitting periodic reports on telemarketing activities and results.65
- Promoting goods and services by telephone or electronic mail, following scripts and working from lists of contacts63
- Recording notes for follow-up action and updating marketing databases to reflect changes to the status of each customer59
- Arranging processing and despatch of goods and services, information kits and brochures to customers56
- Creating interest in goods and services, and seeking a sale or agreement to see sales representatives55
- Reporting competitor activities and issues raised by contacts for attention by managers44
How much does it affect you?
Every job is different: mark which of these tasks you do and how much, and we'll compute your own, time-weighted score.
For each task: I don't do it · sometimes · most of my job.
- Arranging appointments for sales representatives(76)
- Maintaining statistics of calls made and successes achieved(72)
- Submitting periodic reports on telemarketing activities and results.(65)
- Promoting goods and services by telephone or electronic mail, following scripts and working from lists of contacts(63)
- Recording notes for follow-up action and updating marketing databases to reflect changes to the status of each customer(59)
- Arranging processing and despatch of goods and services, information kits and brochures to customers(56)
- Creating interest in goods and services, and seeking a sale or agreement to see sales representatives(55)
- Reporting competitor activities and issues raised by contacts for attention by managers(44)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 61.)
About 88% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Arranging appointments for sales representatives
- • Maintaining statistics of calls made and successes achieved
- • Reporting competitor activities and issues raised by contacts for attention by managers
- • Creating interest in goods and services, and seeking a sale or agreement to see sales representatives
An estimate from the ILO task scores. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is sent or stored.
How many people work in this occupational group?
Share of the Sales workers group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Sales workers |
|---|---|
| Greece | 13.0% · 564 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 9.9% · 2,207 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 9.7% · 749 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 9.2% · 269 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 7.4% · 1,770 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 7.3% · 16 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 7.3% · 380 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 7.2% · 123 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 7.1% · 184 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 6.7% · 302 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 6.7% · 1,152 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 6.6% · 204 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 6.4% · 187 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 6.2% · 31 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 6.1% · 287 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 6.1% · 598 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 5.8% · 163 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 5.8% · 2,447 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 5.6% · 56 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 5.6% · 39 thousand · 2025 |
| Finland | 5.4% · 141 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 5.3% · 17 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 5.3% · 47 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 5.2% · 273 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 5.0% · 73 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 4.9% · 254 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 4.4% · 1,497 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 4.3% · 1,268 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 3.9% · 205 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 3.6% · 174 thousand · 2025 |
| Luxembourg | 2.1% · 7 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Service and sales workers). Eurostat's earnings survey only publishes pay by occupation at 1 digit, so this is the job's broader group. Enterprises with 10+ employees, 2022.
By country, at purchasing power parity (PPS/month), so countries with different price levels can be compared.
- Switzerland3,559
- Ireland2,981
- Iceland2,762
- Norway2,734
- Luxembourg2,698
- Belgium2,689
- Denmark2,619
- Germany2,310
- Sweden2,292
- Finland2,182
- Netherlands2,147
- Austria2,135
- EU272,105
- France2,099
- Italy2,088
- Slovenia1,822
- Malta1,773
- Spain1,759
- Lithuania1,577
- Czechia1,467
- Poland1,464
- Croatia1,458
- Greece1,421
- Cyprus1,410
- Slovakia1,403
- Romania1,372
- Hungary1,299
- Estonia1,266
- Portugal1,202
- Latvia1,186
- Bulgaria917
Source: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_21), every four years. The United Kingdom is not covered by the survey.
Outlook to 2035
Employment in the Sales workers group according to Cedefop's 2026 forecast.
thousand · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · 2026–2035: projection
Replacement demand is the jobs left by people retiring or changing careers — even a shrinking occupation can have many openings.
Related occupations
Sources: ILO WP140 (2025) · Eurostat lfsa_egai2d · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · WEF Future of Jobs 2025 · ESCO. The exposure score measures how much of an occupation's tasks generative AI could perform — not whether the job disappears. For information only, not career advice. How do we calculate this?