Job Check
Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks
Verify and maintain records on incoming and outgoing shipments involving inventory. Duties include verifying and recording incoming merchandise or material and arranging for the transportation of products. May prepare items for shipment.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Examine shipment contents and compare with records, such as manifests, invoices, or orders, to verify accuracy.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 02Requisition and store shipping materials and supplies to maintain inventory of stock.Mostly human for now
- 03Prepare documents, such as work orders, bills of lading, or shipping orders, to route materials.AI could speed this up a lot
- 04Pack, seal, label, or affix postage to prepare materials for shipping, using hand tools, power tools, or postage meter.Mostly human for now
- 05Record shipment data, such as weight, charges, space availability, damages, or discrepancies, for reporting, accounting, or recordkeeping purposes.AI could speed this up a lot
- 06Confer or correspond with establishment representatives to rectify problems, such as damages, shortages, or nonconformance to specifications.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 07Deliver or route materials to departments using handtruck, conveyor, or sorting bins.Mostly human for now
- 08Contact carrier representatives to make arrangements or to issue instructions for shipping and delivery of materials.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 09Determine shipping methods, routes, or rates for materials to be shipped.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Compute amounts, such as space available, shipping, storage, or demurrage charges, using computer or price list.AI could speed this up a lot
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 lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
50%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 64% 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
Above 71% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
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.
- Requisition and store shipping materials and supplies to maintain inventory of stock.
- Pack, seal, label, or affix postage to prepare materials for shipping, using hand tools, power tools, or postage meter.
- Deliver or route materials to departments using handtruck, conveyor, or sorting bins.