Will AI replace Ophthalmic Medical Technicians?
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · O*NET 29-2057.00
Task exposure index for this occupation
Averaged across the week, this work sits at the low end of the exposure scale — most of it is not the kind current systems do well. O*NET breaks Ophthalmic Medical Technicians into 14 distinct work activities. Weighted by how much of the week each one takes, 9% of the job sits at or above the threshold where current systems can do the task end to end. The single largest contributor is "Test patient vision", which scores 34 and takes roughly 36% of the week. That is the average for the job title. It is not a measurement of any particular person’s week, and the difference between the two is usually larger than the difference between job titles.
Model v1.2 · activity indices last updated 18 August 2026
What this occupation does
Assist ophthalmologists by performing ophthalmic clinical functions. May administer eye exams, administer eye medications, and instruct the patient in care and use of corrective lenses.
The most exposed parts of the job
Scored 0–100 on how completely a current system could perform the activity.
- Record patient medical histories.95
About 6% of a typical week
- Collect medical information from patients, family members, or other medical professionals.72
About 3% of a typical week
- Monitor patients following surgeries or other treatments.52
About 4% of a typical week
- Recommend types of assistive devices.44
About 1% of a typical week
- Test patient vision.34
About 36% of a typical week
The least exposed parts
The same scale. These are the activities current systems handle worst.
- Clean medical equipment or facilities.5
About 3% of a typical week
- Sterilize medical equipment or instruments.14
About 3% of a typical week
- Maintain medical equipment or instruments.16
About 6% of a typical week
- Assist healthcare practitioners during surgery.18
About 6% of a typical week
- Fit eyeglasses, contact lenses, or other vision aids.18
About 1% of a typical week
How far off the rest is
Of those 14 activities, 2 can be performed by systems available today and 10 are outside what current approaches do at all. The remaining 2 sit in between — demonstrated in research or in narrow products, but not something you can hand over whole. We do not put dates on that middle group, because nobody can.
Compared with similar occupations
The nearest scoring roles in Healthcare Practitioners and Technical.
- Ophthalmic Medical Technicians (this page)35
- Dentists, General34
- Histotechnologists36
- Ophthalmic Medical Technologists36
Why your own number is different
Two people with the title "Ophthalmic Medical Technicians" can spend their weeks on almost entirely different parts of this list, and the parts they choose move the number far more than the title does. Who signs off when the work is wrong, whether the job needs you physically present, and how fast you have picked up the tools all change it again — and none of that is in an occupation average.
The assessment asks you to divide your own week across these activities and answer fourteen questions about the parts of the job an occupation average cannot see. It takes six to nine minutes.
Score my own roleFree to take. The full report is a paid subscription — the price and its terms are on the pricing section, before you start.
Questions
Will AI replace Ophthalmic Medical Technicians?
We do not answer that, because nobody can. What is measurable is how much of the work is already doable by machine: for Ophthalmic Medical Technicians, about 9% of a typical week, across 14 activities. The other 91% is not, and what happens to the job depends on things this index does not contain — cost, regulation, who carries the liability, and what the people doing it decide to do next.
What part of this job is most exposed?
"Record patient medical histories" — it scores 95 out of 100 on task automatability and takes roughly 6% of the week.
What part is least exposed?
"Clean medical equipment or facilities", at 5 out of 100. Work like that is where the hours you protect tend to be worth the most.
Where do these numbers come from?
The activity list and the time weights come from O*NET 30.3, the US Department of Labor's occupational database. The exposure score for each activity is ours, from a published model — the weights, the priors and the limitations are all on the methodology page. No language model is involved in the arithmetic.
Does this apply to my job?
Only roughly. This is the average for the title, and the number that matters is the one for the week you actually work. The assessment asks you to divide your own time across these activities and answer fourteen questions about accountability, the parts of the job that need you specifically, and how fast you have adapted. That produces a different number, and usually a more useful one.
The full model — the weights, the priors and what it cannot see — is on the methodology page.