Will AI replace Procurement Clerks?

What this score means

Procurement Clerks is among the more exposed roles in Administration. A large share of the work, especially its routine and text heavy parts, is already within reach of current AI, though the harder judgment calls still need a person. At 59 out of 100 it scores 7 points above the Administration average of 52. Across the 6 sources behind this baseline, individual estimates run from 46 to 71, so the score is a weighted consensus rather than any single figure.

The number is a consensus estimate for the typical version of the role, built from published academic and industry research scored occupation by occupation. It is not a prediction about any individual. How scoring works

What this job actually involves

Exposure follows the work itself rather than the job title, so it is worth seeing what the role is made of. These are the tasks O*NET records for Procurement Clerks, most central first, showing 12 of 19.

• 01Track the status of requisitions, contracts, and orders.
• 02Perform buying duties when necessary.
• 03Prepare purchase orders and send copies to suppliers and to departments originating requests.
• 04Calculate costs of orders, and charge or forward invoices to appropriate accounts.
• 05Compare prices, specifications, and delivery dates to determine the best bid among potential suppliers.
• 06Approve and pay bills.
• 07Maintain knowledge of all organizational and governmental rules affecting purchases, and provide information about these rules to organization staff members and to vendors.
• 08Determine if inventory quantities are sufficient for needs, ordering more materials when necessary.
• 09Check shipments when they arrive to ensure that orders have been filled correctly and that goods meet specifications.
• 10Contact suppliers to schedule or expedite deliveries and to resolve shortages, missed or late deliveries, and other problems.
• 11Prepare, maintain, and review purchasing files, reports and price lists.
• 12Review requisition orders to verify accuracy, terminology, and specifications.

Task statements from O*NET by the National Center for O*NET Development, used under CC BY 4.0. The tasks are descriptive; the exposure score above is ours.

The research behind this score

This baseline aggregates 6 research sources that scored Procurement Clerks for AI and automation exposure. More recent, higher confidence studies carry more weight in the final number.

• 01Anthropic Economic Index 2026 - AI Task Exposure · 2026Anthropic
• 02Global Automation Atlas: Task Substitution Exposure by Occupation · 2026Garg, Crosta, Baier (2026), arXiv:2605.17086
• 03Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure · 2025International Labour Organization, Working Paper 140 (2025)
• 04Working with AI: Measuring the Applicability of Generative AI to Occupations · 2025Tomlinson, Jaffe et al., Microsoft Research (2025)
• 05GPTs are GPTs: Labor Market Impact Potential of LLMs · 2024Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin, Rock (Science, 2024)
• 06AI Occupational Exposure to Language Modeling · 2023Felten, Raj, Seamans (2023)

Common questions

How likely is AI to replace Procurement Clerks?

Published research puts Procurement Clerks at 59 out of 100 for AI displacement risk, in the transitioning band. The number is a weighted consensus of 6 research sources and describes the typical version of the role, not any individual.

Do researchers agree on the risk for Procurement Clerks?

Only partly. Individual estimates for Procurement Clerks run from 46 to 71 out of 100 across the 6 sources behind this score, so the single number smooths over real disagreement. More recent and higher confidence studies carry more weight in it.

Which administration roles face similar AI exposure?

The closest published administration roles to Procurement Clerks by score are Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants (59/100), Order Clerks (59/100), and Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service (59/100). Each has its own page with the research behind its number.

Also covers

Buyer · Departmental Buyer · Expeditor · Film Replacement Orderer · Procurement Agent · Procurement Analyst · Procurement Assistant · Procurement Clerk and related titles

More administration occupations

• Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping60/100
• Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks60/100
• Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants59/100
• Order Clerks59/100
• Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service59/100
• Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks58/100
• Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance58/100
• Office Clerks, General58/100