Stock control clerks
and assistants
Stock control clerks and assistants receive orders from customers, prepare requisitions or despatch documents for ordered goods, maintain and update records, files and other correspondence in relation to the storage and despatch of goods.
- Employees (UK)
- 69k
- Median annual pay
- £28,851
- Exposure score ?
- 1.9/10 Minimal 5.3/10 Moderate strict reading, with tools is 5.3/10 with-tools reading, strict is 1.9/10
- Wage exposure
- £378m £1.06bn
Higher exposure than 80% 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.
A real share of the task list is within reach, especially drafting, summarising, research and analysis. People in this role who learn to direct AI well will pull ahead of those who do not.
If you are in this role
Treat AI like a capable junior you manage. Where you would hand a task to a junior with a clear brief, AI can do it now. Spend the time you get back on judgement and relationships.
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.
-
Compare product labels, tags, or tickets, shipping manifests, purchase orders, and bills of lading to verify accuracy of shipment contents, quality specifications, or weights.
-
Document quantity, quality, type, weight, test result data, and value of materials or products to maintain shipping, receiving, and production records and files.
-
Weigh or measure materials, equipment, or products to maintain relevant records, using volume meters, scales, rules, or calipers.
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.
-
Compare product labels, tags, or tickets, shipping manifests, purchase orders, and bills of lading to verify accuracy of shipment contents, quality specifications, or weights.
-
Document quantity, quality, type, weight, test result data, and value of materials or products to maintain shipping, receiving, and production records and files.
-
Inspect products and examination records to determine the number of defects per worker and the reasons for examiners' rejections.
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 "Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping" (43-5111.00).
What AI can already do
2 of 18 tasks, unaided
Document quantity, quality, type, weight, test result data, and value of materials or products to maintain shipping, receiving, and production records and files.
Operate scalehouse computers to obtain weight information about incoming shipments such as those from waste haulers.
What still needs a person
16 of 18 tasks
Compare product labels, tags, or tickets, shipping manifests, purchase orders, and bills of lading to verify accuracy of shipment contents, quality specifications, or weights.
Weigh or measure materials, equipment, or products to maintain relevant records, using volume meters, scales, rules, or calipers.
Collect or prepare measurement, weight, or identification labels and attach them to products.
Remove from stock products or loads not meeting quality standards, and notify supervisors or appropriate departments of discrepancies or shortages.
Inspect products and examination records to determine the number of defects per worker and the reasons for examiners' rejections.
Examine products or materials, parts, subassemblies, and packaging for damage, defects, or shortages, using specification sheets, gauges, and standards charts.
Store samples of finished products in labeled cartons and record their location.
Signal or instruct other workers to weigh, move, or check products.
Count or estimate quantities of materials, parts, or products received or shipped.
Communicate with customers and vendors to exchange information regarding products, materials, and services.
Fill orders for products and samples, following order tickets, and forward or mail items.
Collect product samples and prepare them for laboratory analysis or testing.
Sort products or materials into predetermined sequences or groupings for display, packing, shipping, or storage.
Transport materials, products, or samples to processing, shipping, or storage areas, manually or using conveyors, pumps, or hand trucks.
Maintain, monitor, and clean work areas, such as recycling collection sites, drop boxes, counters and windows, and areas around scale houses.
Unload or unpack incoming shipments.
Tasks via O*NET "Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping" (43-5111.00).
What AI can already do
6 of 18 tasks, with tools
Compare product labels, tags, or tickets, shipping manifests, purchase orders, and bills of lading to verify accuracy of shipment contents, quality specifications, or weights.
Document quantity, quality, type, weight, test result data, and value of materials or products to maintain shipping, receiving, and production records and files.
Inspect products and examination records to determine the number of defects per worker and the reasons for examiners' rejections.
Count or estimate quantities of materials, parts, or products received or shipped.
Communicate with customers and vendors to exchange information regarding products, materials, and services.
Operate scalehouse computers to obtain weight information about incoming shipments such as those from waste haulers.
What still needs a person
12 of 18 tasks
Weigh or measure materials, equipment, or products to maintain relevant records, using volume meters, scales, rules, or calipers.
Collect or prepare measurement, weight, or identification labels and attach them to products.
Remove from stock products or loads not meeting quality standards, and notify supervisors or appropriate departments of discrepancies or shortages.
Examine products or materials, parts, subassemblies, and packaging for damage, defects, or shortages, using specification sheets, gauges, and standards charts.
Store samples of finished products in labeled cartons and record their location.
Signal or instruct other workers to weigh, move, or check products.
Fill orders for products and samples, following order tickets, and forward or mail items.
Collect product samples and prepare them for laboratory analysis or testing.
Sort products or materials into predetermined sequences or groupings for display, packing, shipping, or storage.
Transport materials, products, or samples to processing, shipping, or storage areas, manually or using conveyors, pumps, or hand trucks.
Maintain, monitor, and clean work areas, such as recycling collection sites, drop boxes, counters and windows, and areas around scale houses.
Unload or unpack incoming shipments.
Stay on top of this.
An email when there is something worth reading: what is real in AI at work, what is noise, and what operators are doing about it.
Free. Unsubscribe any time.
Related occupations.
Other roles in Administrative and secretarial 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