Receive and process incoming orders for materials, merchandise, classified ads, or services such as repairs, installations, or rental of facilities. Generally receives orders via mail, phone, fax, or other electronic means. Duties include informing customers of receipt, prices, shipping dates, and delays; preparing contracts; and handling complaints.
U.S. Workers
83,420
Median Salary
$44,660
10-Year Growth
-17.2%
Annual Openings
8,000
Typical entry: Some college, no degree
19 of 19 tasks have some AI capability
Exposure Trend
This score reflects estimated AI technical capability for tasks in this occupation. It does not predict employment changes, and it does not account for company-specific constraints, regulation, or adoption barriers.
Verify customer and order information for correctness, checking it against previously obtained information as necessary.
AI: Fully automatable - Verifying customer and order information against existing records is a data-matching and validation task that AI and automation can perform reliably for the vast majority of cases.
Review orders for completeness according to reporting procedures and forward incomplete orders for further processing.
AI: Fully automatable - Reviewing orders for completeness against reporting rules and routing incomplete orders for further processing is a rule-based workflow that can be fully automated.
Inform customers by mail or telephone of order information, such as unit prices, shipping dates, and any anticipated delays.
AI: Fully automatable - By 2025, integrated CRM, email/SMS gateways and voice bots can automatically generate and send notifications and handle routine phone updates about prices, shipping dates, and delays.
Obtain customers' names, addresses, and billing information, product numbers, and specifications of items to be purchased, and enter this information on order forms.
AI: Fully automatable - Conversational agents, secure web forms and RPA can reliably collect customer names, addresses, billing details and product specs and populate order forms while integrating with payment processors under PCI-compliant flows.
Prepare invoices, shipping documents, and contracts.
AI: Fully automatable - Invoice, shipping document and standardized contract generation is routinely automated via template population, e-signature platforms and ERP integrations.
Recommend merchandise or services that will meet customers' needs.
AI: Fully automatable - Recommendation engines and conversational AI using customer data and catalog metadata can generate relevant merchandise or service suggestions for most typical needs.
Compute total charges for merchandise or services and shipping charges.
AI: Fully automatable - Computing totals including item prices, taxes, discounts and shipping is a deterministic calculation fully handled by software and AI-integrated pricing engines.
Direct specified departments or units to prepare and ship orders to designated locations.
AI: Fully automatable - Workflow automation and orchestration tools allow AI to issue directives to departments, trigger pick/pack/ship processes and update systems without human intervention for routine orders.
Check inventory records to determine availability of requested merchandise.
AI: Fully automatable - Querying inventory records to determine availability is a straightforward database operation already fully automatable through integrated systems.
File copies of orders received, or post orders on records.
AI: Fully automatable - Filing and posting orders are structured, rules‑based tasks that can be fully automated with OCR/RPA and record‑management systems.
Adjust inventory records to reflect product movement.
AI: Fully automatable - Updating inventory to reflect product movement is routinely automated via integrations with sales, warehouse scanners, and ERP systems.
Notify departments when supplies of specific items are low, or when orders would deplete available supplies.
AI: Fully automatable - Inventory threshold monitoring and automated notifications are straightforward to implement with integrated inventory management and alerting logic.
Calculate and compile order-related statistics, and prepare reports for management.
AI: Fully automatable - Calculating order statistics and generating management reports is a data processing task that can be fully automated and auto‑formatted by BI tools or AI.
Receive and respond to customer complaints.
AI: Partial - AI can receive, triage, and respond to many routine customer complaints, but nuanced, high-emotion, or complex-resolution cases generally require human agents and escalation.
Confer with production, sales, shipping, warehouse, or common carrier personnel to expedite or trace shipments.
AI: Partial - AI can query systems, send alerts and coordinate status with stakeholders, but nuanced negotiation, escalation and real‑time human coordination for exceptions still require human involvement.
Inspect outgoing work for compliance with customers' specifications.
AI: Partial - Automated vision systems and checklists can perform many compliance inspections, but subjective judgments and complex specification mismatches still need human review.
Collect payment for merchandise, record transactions, and send items such as checks or money orders for further processing.
AI: Partial - Digital payment collection and transaction recording are automatable, but handling and physically sending checks or money orders for further processing still involves manual steps.
Attempt to sell additional merchandise or services to prospective or current customers by telephone or through visits.
AI: Partial - AI can handle scripted outreach, personalized messaging, and initial upsell by phone or chat, but complex negotiations and in‑person relationship selling remain human‑dependent.
Recommend type of packing or labeling needed on order.
AI: Partial - AI can recommend packing and labeling using product attributes, regulations, and shipping rules, but unusual items or nuanced packing judgments still require human oversight.