Will AI replace Pharmacy Technicians?
Estimated risk score: 70 out of 100
High 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 (51 to 89).
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 29-2052.00 · 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: 14 of its 21 rated tasks; the first 6 are shown. In O*NET’s words.
- Operate cash registers to accept payment from customers.
- Answer telephones, responding to questions or requests.
- Enter prescription information into computer databases.
- Price and file prescriptions that have been filled.
- Receive written prescription or refill requests and verify that information is complete and accurate.
- Compute charges for medication or equipment dispensed to hospital patients and enter data in computer.
Tasks rated in 2023 as not sped up by AI
Tasks such a model was rated as not speeding up or taking over: 7 of its 21 rated tasks; the first 6 are shown. In O*NET’s words.
- Clean and help maintain equipment or work areas and sterilize glassware, according to prescribed methods.
- Mix pharmaceutical preparations, according to written prescriptions.
- Maintain proper storage and security conditions for drugs.
- Deliver medications or pharmaceutical supplies to patients, nursing stations, or surgery.
- Restock intravenous (IV) supplies and add measured drugs or nutrients to IV solutions under sterile conditions to prepare IV packs for various uses, such as chemotherapy medication.
- Transfer medication from vials to the appropriate number of sterile, disposable syringes, using aseptic techniques.
What the job is
Prepare medications under the direction of a pharmacist. May measure, mix, count out, label, and record amounts and dosages of medications according to prescription orders.
Also called: Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT), RPhT (Registered Pharmacy Technician), OR Pharmacy Tech (Operating Room Pharmacy Tech), Chemotherapy Pharmacy Technician (Chemo Pharmacy Technician), CPhT, RPhT, Pharm Tech, OR Pharmacy Tech.
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