Will AI replace Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
21/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 37% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 21% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 28% of the work
What the job involves
Perform complex medical laboratory tests for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. May train or supervise staff.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(3)
- Analyze laboratory findings to check the accuracy of the results.
- Enter data from analysis of medical tests or clinical results into computer for storage.
- Develop, standardize, evaluate, or modify procedures, techniques, or tests used in the analysis of specimens or in medical laboratory experiments.
Within reach(2)
- Establish or monitor quality assurance programs or activities to ensure the accuracy of laboratory results.
- Provide technical information about test results to physicians, family members, or researchers.
Out of reach(10)
- Set up, clean, and maintain laboratory equipment.
- Analyze samples of biological material for chemical content or reaction.
- Collect and study blood samples to determine the number of cells, their morphology, or their blood group, blood type, or compatibility for transfusion purposes, using microscopic techniques.
- Operate, calibrate, or maintain equipment used in quantitative or qualitative analysis, such as spectrophotometers, calorimeters, flame photometers, or computer-controlled analyzers.
- Supervise, train, or direct lab assistants, medical and clinical laboratory technicians or technologists, or other medical laboratory workers engaged in laboratory testing.
and 5 more
Also called
Medical Technologist (MT) · Microbiology Technologist (MT) · MT · Biochemistry Technologist · Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS) · Clinical Laboratory Technologist · Histologist Technologist · Lab Tech (Laboratory Technologist)
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