Buyers and procurement officers
Buyers and procurement officers organise and undertake the buying of raw materials, equipment and merchandise from manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and other sources for distribution, resale or for own internal use.
- Employees (UK)
- 61k
- Median annual pay
- £36,230
- Exposure score ?
- 0.6/10 Minimal 9.3/10 Very high strict reading, with tools is 9.3/10 with-tools reading, strict is 0.6/10
- Wage exposure
- £133m £2.06bn
Higher exposure than 30% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Almost every routine task in this role is within reach of today's models. Roles like this are being rebuilt, usually not by disappearing but by one person using AI to produce what several did.
If you are in this role
Be the person doing the rebuilding. People who learn to run this kind of work with AI become very valuable, and the ones who wait tend to have the change made for them.
Where the work usually starts.
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgement, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where the work starts. Switch to With tools to see what AI plus the right context can take on.
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Buy merchandise or commodities for resale to wholesale or retail consumers.
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Negotiate prices, discount terms, or transportation arrangements with suppliers.
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Consult with store or merchandise managers about budgets or goods to be purchased.
These are the most important tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. The first wins usually come from building workflows around them. That is the difference between a model that could do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Buy merchandise or commodities for resale to wholesale or retail consumers.
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Negotiate prices, discount terms, or transportation arrangements with suppliers.
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Consult with store or merchandise managers about budgets or goods to be purchased.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products" (13-1022.00).
What AI can already do
1 of 20 tasks, unaided
Provide clerks with information to print on price tags, such as price, mark-ups or mark-downs, manufacturer number, season code, or style number.
What still needs a person
19 of 20 tasks
Buy merchandise or commodities for resale to wholesale or retail consumers.
Negotiate prices, discount terms, or transportation arrangements with suppliers.
Consult with store or merchandise managers about budgets or goods to be purchased.
Examine, select, order, or purchase merchandise consistent with quality, quantity, specification requirements, or other factors, such as environmental soundness.
Recommend mark-up rates, mark-down rates, or merchandise selling prices.
Obtain information about customer needs or preferences by conferring with sales or purchasing personnel.
Authorize payment of invoices or return of merchandise.
Monitor and analyze sales records, trends, or economic conditions to anticipate consumer buying patterns, company sales, and needed inventory.
Collaborate with vendors to obtain or develop desired products.
Train or supervise sales or clerical staff.
Inspect merchandise or products to determine quality, value, or yield.
Determine which products should be featured in advertising, the advertising medium to be used, or when the ads should be run.
Monitor competitors' sales activities by following their advertisements in newspapers or other media.
Conduct sales meetings to introduce new merchandise.
Analyze environmental aspects of competing merchandise when making buying decisions.
Compare transportation options to determine the most energy-efficient options.
Develop strategies to advertise green products or merchandise to consumers.
Identify opportunities to buy green commodities, such as alternative energy, water, or carbon-neutral products for resale to consumers.
Monitor consumer preferences or environmental trends to determine the best way to introduce new green products.
Tasks via O*NET "Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products" (13-1022.00).
What AI can already do
18 of 20 tasks, with tools
Buy merchandise or commodities for resale to wholesale or retail consumers.
Negotiate prices, discount terms, or transportation arrangements with suppliers.
Consult with store or merchandise managers about budgets or goods to be purchased.
Examine, select, order, or purchase merchandise consistent with quality, quantity, specification requirements, or other factors, such as environmental soundness.
Provide clerks with information to print on price tags, such as price, mark-ups or mark-downs, manufacturer number, season code, or style number.
Recommend mark-up rates, mark-down rates, or merchandise selling prices.
Obtain information about customer needs or preferences by conferring with sales or purchasing personnel.
Authorize payment of invoices or return of merchandise.
Monitor and analyze sales records, trends, or economic conditions to anticipate consumer buying patterns, company sales, and needed inventory.
Collaborate with vendors to obtain or develop desired products.
Inspect merchandise or products to determine quality, value, or yield.
Determine which products should be featured in advertising, the advertising medium to be used, or when the ads should be run.
Monitor competitors' sales activities by following their advertisements in newspapers or other media.
Analyze environmental aspects of competing merchandise when making buying decisions.
Compare transportation options to determine the most energy-efficient options.
Develop strategies to advertise green products or merchandise to consumers.
Identify opportunities to buy green commodities, such as alternative energy, water, or carbon-neutral products for resale to consumers.
Monitor consumer preferences or environmental trends to determine the best way to introduce new green products.
What still needs a person
2 of 20 tasks
Train or supervise sales or clerical staff.
Conduct sales meetings to introduce new merchandise.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Associate professional occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons