Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 30% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 31% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 69% of the time, stays with people.
Sell goods or services door-to-door or on the street.
2,760 people do this job in the US. $41,380 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on12 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people28 h
Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 12 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 28 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Develop prospect lists (about 4 h); Arrange buying parties and solicit sponsorship of such parties to sell merchandise (about 4 h); Answer questions about product features and benefits (about 2 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 31%
- 7%
- 63%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 3%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 24%. Today's estimate: 31%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.38% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 66th largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 2 of its 12 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.029% to 0.02% (released February and March 2025); 0.069% to 0.23% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.37% to 0.38% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.029% | 370 of 708 | 4 of 12 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.02% | 425 of 703 | 3 of 12 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.069% | 193 of 655 | 2 of 12 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.17% | 98 of 672 | 5 of 12 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.23% | 87 of 677 | 5 of 12 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.37% | 65 of 434 | 2 of 12 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.38% | 66 of 447 | 2 of 12 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 68% of this job's working time as physical work. For 68% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 12% in a purpose-built cell, 44% in a structured facility, 12% in any setting. 1.36 of 3, the 35th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 32%
- In a purpose-built cell 12%
- In a structured facility 44%
- In any setting 12%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 12 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circulate among potential customers or travel by foot, truck, automobile, or bicycle to deliver or sell merchandise or services.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Serve Robotics third-generation sidewalk delivery robot (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 36% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Develop prospect lists.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 10% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Distribute product samples or literature that details products or services.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Spot last-mile delivery ('porch gap') (Boston Dynamics) (demonstrated). Anthropic's rating. | 10% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Arrange buying parties and solicit sponsorship of such parties to sell merchandise.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 10% | 1.7 h25 min to 3.3 h | 99%Half by now | |
| Deliver merchandise and collect payment.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in any setting, Neolix autonomous retail/delivery vehicle (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Persuade customers to purchase merchandise or services.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 7% | 17 min4 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Explain products or services and prices and demonstrate use of products.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Mornine (AiMOGA Robotics / Chery) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 13 min4 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Answer questions about product features and benefits.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 5% | 8 min3 min to 17 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Write and record orders for merchandise or enter orders into computers.Done more than weekly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 3% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Order or purchase supplies.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Symbotic automated case-handling system (SymBots, robotic depalletizing/palletizing cells) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Set up and display sample merchandise at parties or stands.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Amazon Sparrow (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 33 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Stock carts or stands.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ACPaQ mixed case palletizer (Swisslog / KUKA) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 1% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Retail Salespersons23% now, 23% by 2028
- Counter and Rental Clerks23% now, 23% by 2028
- Demonstrators and Product Promoters15% now, 15% by 2028
- Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products46% now, 47% by 2028
- Cashiers19% now, 19% by 2028
- Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products60% now, 62% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 31% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 31% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Develop prospect lists (100% of the task's time now); Arrange buying parties and solicit sponsorship of such parties to sell merchandise (99% of the task's time now); and Answer questions about product features and benefits (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Circulate among potential customers or travel by foot, truck, automobile, or bicycle to deliver or sell merchandise or services; Distribute product samples or literature that details products or services; and Deliver merchandise and collect payment. Together such tasks are about 69% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.38% went to this job's tasks, the 66th largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 2 of its 12 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 18%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 68% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 68% of the working time, 12% in any setting. Its index is 1.36 of 3. One example: Neolix autonomous retail/delivery vehicle for "deliver merchandise and collect payment". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 12 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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