Correspond with customers to answer questions or resolve complaints.
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This work is the relationship itself. An agent can prepare for it and write up what happened afterwards, which is real time saved, but the encounter needs a person present and answerable.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Relationships, negotiation and public-facing presence |
| Jobs that do it | 15 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Performing for or Working Directly with the Public (4.A.4.a.8) |
What could do this work.
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Who does this work.
15 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Agents and Business Managers of Artists, Performers, and Athletes
- Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Credit Analysts
- Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks
- Credit Counselors
- Energy Auditors
- Environmental Compliance Inspectors
- Loan Officers
- Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners
- News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists
- Online Merchants
- Personal Financial Advisors
- Regulatory Affairs Specialists
- Tax Examiners and Collectors, and Revenue Agents
- Tax Preparers
Work that goes with it.
O*NET groups these under “Respond to customer problems or inquiries”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.