Job Check
Sales Engineers
Sell business goods or services, the selling of which requires a technical background equivalent to a baccalaureate degree in engineering.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Develop, present, or respond to proposals for specific customer requirements, including request for proposal responses and industry-specific solutions.People already use AI for this at work
- 02Collaborate with sales teams to understand customer requirements, to promote the sale of company products, and to provide sales support.People already use AI for this at work
- 03Create sales or service contracts for products or services.AI could speed this up a lot
- 04Visit prospective buyers at commercial, industrial, or other establishments to show samples or catalogs, and to inform them about product pricing, availability, and advantages.Mostly human for now
- 05Keep informed on industry news and trends, products, services, competitors, relevant information about legacy, existing, and emerging technologies, and the latest product-line developments.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Identify resale opportunities and support them to achieve sales plans.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 07Confer with customers and engineers to assess equipment needs and to determine system requirements.People already use AI for this at work
- 08Plan and modify product configurations to meet customer needs.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 09Prepare and deliver technical presentations that explain products or services to customers and prospective customers.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Recommend improved materials or machinery to customers, documenting how such changes will lower costs or increase production.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job loss32%of this job’s work time goes to tasks that people already do with Claude at work, counting tasks where AI only helps as half (2026).Anthropic, 2026
51%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 87% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Visit prospective buyers at commercial, industrial, or other establishments to show samples or catalogs, and to inform them about product pricing, availability, and advantages.
AI tools for your work
Official connectors that let an AI assistant work inside the apps sales use. Each is made by the app’s own maker.