Will AI replace Opticians, Dispensing?
Estimated risk score: 36 out of 100
Lower replacement risk
Estimate from published task research, not reviewed by a person · how we estimate
Within about 19 points for 4 in 5 of the jobs we checked (17 to 55).
For the occupation as a whole, from ratings of its 21 O*NET tasks published in 2023 and calibrated to our hand scores. A specialty inside it can sit higher or lower.
O*NET-SOC 29-2081.00 · Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
Tasks rated in 2023 as ones AI could do or speed up
Tasks a GPT-4-class model could do, or do in half the time or less: 4 of its 21 rated tasks. In O*NET’s words.
- Maintain records of customer prescriptions, work orders, and payments.
- Perform administrative duties, such as tracking inventory and sales, submitting patient insurance information, and performing simple bookkeeping.
- Obtain a customer's previous record, or verify a prescription with the examining optometrist or ophthalmologist.
- Order and purchase frames and lenses.
Tasks rated in 2023 as not sped up by AI
Tasks such a model was rated as not speeding up or taking over: 11 of its 21 rated tasks; the first 6 are shown. In O*NET’s words.
- Assemble eyeglasses by cutting and edging lenses, and fitting the lenses into frames.
- Fabricate lenses to meet prescription specifications.
- Grind lens edges, or apply coatings to lenses.
- Heat, shape, or bend plastic or metal frames to adjust eyeglasses to fit clients, using pliers and hands.
- Repair damaged frames.
- Evaluate prescriptions in conjunction with clients' vocational and avocational visual requirements.
What the job is
Design, measure, fit, and adapt lenses and frames for client according to written optical prescription or specification. Assist client with inserting, removing, and caring for contact lenses. Assist client with selecting frames. Measure customer for size of eyeglasses and coordinate frames with facial and eye measurements and optical prescription. Prepare work order for optical laboratory containing instructions for grinding and mounting lenses in frames. Verify exactness of finished lens spectacles. Adjust frame and lens position to fit client. May shape or reshape frames. Includes contact lens opticians.
Also called: Licensed Optician, Dispensing Optician, Licensed Dispensing Optician (LDO), LDO, Eyeglass Fitter, Optical Dispenser, Certified Optician, Eyewear Specialist.
Closest jobs we score by hand
In the same field (Healthcare Practitioners and Technical). Different jobs, each scored by a person.
Source. This site includes information from the O*NET 30.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. (O*NET, CC BY 4.0.) Task ratings: Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock (2023), “GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models”, data used under the MIT licence (licence texts). Our change: we averaged the ratings over this occupation’s tasks and calibrated them to our 0–100 scale. It is not a prediction about any one person and not career advice. Disagree? Write to hello@yourstopwashit.com. How we estimate