Will AI replace Forensic Science Technicians?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
21/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 35% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 34% of the work
What the job involves
Collect, identify, classify, and analyze physical evidence related to criminal investigations. Perform tests on weapons or substances, such as fiber, hair, and tissue to determine significance to investigation. May testify as expert witnesses on evidence or crime laboratory techniques. May serve as specialists in area of expertise, such as ballistics, fingerprinting, handwriting, or biochemistry.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(7)
- Keep records and prepare reports detailing findings, investigative methods, and laboratory techniques.
- Use photographic or video equipment to document evidence or crime scenes.
- Analyze gunshot residue and bullet paths to determine how shootings occurred.
- Interpret laboratory findings or test results to identify and classify substances, materials, or other evidence collected at crime scenes.
- Reconstruct crime scenes to determine relationships among pieces of evidence.
and 2 more
Out of reach(13)
- Testify in court about investigative or analytical methods or findings.
- Collect evidence from crime scenes, storing it in conditions that preserve its integrity.
- Train new technicians or other personnel on forensic science techniques.
- Visit morgues, examine scenes of crimes, or contact other sources to obtain evidence or information to be used in investigations.
- Collect impressions of dust from surfaces to obtain and identify fingerprints.
and 8 more
Also called
Crime Scene Technician (Crime Scene Tech) · Criminalist · Evidence Technician (Evidence Tech) · Ballistician · Crime Scene Tech · Evidence Tech · Forensic Analyst · Crime Lab Analyst (Crime Laboratory Analyst)
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics