Career Explorer Sales
Changing shape
Advertising sales agents
Sell or solicit advertising space, time, or media in publications, signage, TV, radio, or Internet establishments or public spaces.
Among the careers AI is changing fastest: more resilient than 7% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is very high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it very high), and US jobs are projected to change by -7.2% by 2035, expected to shrink. The work leans on creative vision and emotional intelligence.
AI can do many of the tasks, and hiring is expected to grow slower than average or to shrink. The job is likely to change, so build the human parts of it.
- Median pay (2025)
- $64,820
- Job growth to 2035
- -7.2%
- Openings a year
- 7,800
- People doing it (2025)
- 99,300
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then moderate on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Develop marketing or promotional materials
- Explain technical details of products or services
- Promote products, services, or programs
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Develop business or marketing plans
- Collect data about consumer needs or opinions
- Negotiate contracts or agreements
What the work looks like
- Explain to customers how specific types of advertising will help promote their products or services in the most effective way possible.
- Prepare and deliver sales presentations to new and existing customers to sell new advertising programs and to protect and increase existing advertising.
- Obtain and study information about clients' products, needs, problems, advertising history, and business practices to offer effective sales presentations and appropriate product assistance.
- Provide clients with estimates of the costs of advertising products or services.
- Maintain assigned account bases while developing new accounts.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as the ad buying and selling process is increasingly automated by technology, reducing the need for advertising sales agents.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services, and travelChanging shape, Index 13, +2.7%
- Real estate brokersChanging shape, Index 10, +0.8%
- Teaching assistants, except postsecondaryChanging shape, Index 40, -0.3%
- Transportation, storage, and distribution managersGrows with AI, Index 48, +6.1%
Also known as: Advertising Account Executive, Advertising Representative, Advertising Sales Representative (Ad Sales Representative), Media Consultant, Advertising Account Representative, Advertising Consultant, Directory Advertising Sales Representative (Directory Advertising Sales Rep), Display Advertising Sales Representative (Display Advertising Sales Rep).
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.