Career Explorer Management
Grows with AI
Sales managers
Plan, direct, or coordinate the actual distribution or movement of a product or service to the customer. Coordinate sales distribution by establishing sales territories, quotas, and goals and establish training programs for sales representatives. Analyze sales statistics gathered by staff to determine sales potential and inventory requirements and monitor the preferences of customers.
In the middle of the pack: more resilient than 50% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by +4.5% by 2035, faster than average. The work leans on creative vision and emotional intelligence.
AI can help with many of the tasks, and demand is still growing. Being fluent with AI is the edge here.
- Median pay (2025)
- $148,270
- Job growth to 2035
- +4.5%
- Openings a year
- 47,300
- People doing it (2025)
- 650,000
- Usual route in
- Bachelor's degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Respond to customer problems or inquiries
- Advise others on products or services
- Analyze business or financial data
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Direct organizational operations, activities, or procedures
- Supervise personnel activities
- Develop organizational policies, systems, or processes
What the work looks like
- Oversee regional and local sales managers and their staffs.
- Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service.
- Monitor customer preferences to determine focus of sales efforts.
- Confer with potential customers regarding equipment needs, and advise customers on types of equipment to purchase.
- Review operational records and reports to project sales and determine profitability.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as growth in online sales will reduce the need for sales staff, including sales managers, on car showroom floors.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- FundraisersGrows with AI, Index 53, +5.5%
- Medical and health services managersGrows with AI, Index 76, +24.2%
- Human resources managersGrows with AI, Index 68, +5.5%
- Marketing managersGrows with AI, Index 53, +6.9%
Also known as: District Sales Manager, Sales Director, Sales Manager, Sales VP (Sales Vice President), Fractional Sales Executive, National Sales Manager, Regional Sales Manager, Sales and Marketing VP (Sales and Marketing Vice President).
Is this career on your child's list?
Build a free Career Playbook matched to your child, or get a 90-day Action Plan with dated next steps, written for your child by name.
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.