Will AI replace Medical Transcriptionists?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
22/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 38% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 39% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 31% of the work
What the job involves
Transcribe medical reports recorded by physicians and other healthcare practitioners using various electronic devices, covering office visits, emergency room visits, diagnostic imaging studies, operations, chart reviews, and final summaries. Transcribe dictated reports and translate abbreviations into fully understandable form. Edit as necessary and return reports in either printed or electronic form for review and signature, or correction.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(6)
- Transcribe dictation for a variety of medical reports, such as patient histories, physical examinations, emergency room visits, operations, chart reviews, consultation, or discharge summaries.
- Produce medical reports, correspondence, records, patient-care information, statistics, medical research, and administrative material.
- Perform data entry and data retrieval services, providing data for inclusion in medical records and for transmission to physicians.
- Review and edit transcribed reports or dictated material for spelling, grammar, clarity, consistency, and proper medical terminology.
- Take dictation using shorthand, a stenotype machine, or headsets and transcribing machines.
and 1 more
Within reach(2)
- Perform a variety of clerical and office tasks, such as handling incoming and outgoing mail, completing and submitting insurance claims, typing, filing, or operating office machines.
- Set up and maintain medical files and databases, including records such as x-ray, lab, and procedure reports, medical histories, diagnostic workups, admission and discharge summaries, and clinical resumes.
Out of reach(7)
- Return dictated reports in printed or electronic form for physician's review, signature, and corrections and for inclusion in patients' medical records.
- Translate medical jargon and abbreviations into their expanded forms to ensure the accuracy of patient and health care facility records.
- Identify mistakes in reports and check with doctors to obtain the correct information.
- Distinguish between homonyms and recognize inconsistencies and mistakes in medical terms, referring to dictionaries, drug references, and other sources on anatomy, physiology, and medicine.
- Decide which information should be included or excluded in reports.
and 2 more
Also called
Medical Transcriber · Medical Transcriptionist · Pathology Transcriptionist · Radiology Transcriptionist · Transcriptionist · Medical Stenographer · Clinical Medical Transcriptionist · Documentation Specialist
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