Negotiate contracts with clients or service providers
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 | 12 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Resolving Conflicts and Negotiating with Others (4.A.4.a.7) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 12 occupations that perform it.
- Negotiate contracts with farmers for the production or purchase of farm products.
- Negotiate prices, discount terms, or transportation arrangements with suppliers.
- Negotiate, renegotiate, and administer contracts with suppliers, vendors, and other representatives.
- Consult with community representatives to develop technical assistance agreements in accordance with governmental regulations.
- Contract with freight forwarders for destination services.
- Negotiate contracts with such service providers and suppliers as hotels, convention centers, and speakers.
- Negotiate contracts with clients for desired training outcomes, fees, or expenses.
- Negotiate with responsible parties to arrange for recovery of losses due to fraud.
- Negotiate terms and conditions of reinsurance with other companies.
- Participate in contract bidding, negotiation, or administration.
- Subcontract with loggers or pulpwood cutters for tree removal and to aid in road layout.
- Negotiate contractual agreements.
What we would actually use
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.
Buy nothing. An assistant can prepare you for the encounter and write up what happened afterwards, which is real time saved, but the encounter itself is the work and it needs you in it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
Who does this work
12 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Actuaries
- Buyers and Purchasing Agents, Farm Products
- Customs Brokers
- Equal Opportunity Representatives and Officers
- Foresters
- Fraud Examiners, Investigators and Analysts
- Lawyers
- Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners
- Purchasing Agents, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products
- Training and Development Specialists
- Transportation Engineers
- Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Negotiate contracts or agreements”. 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.