Will AI replace Ophthalmic Medical Technicians?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
11/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 21% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 4% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 20% of the work
What the job involves
Assist ophthalmologists by performing ophthalmic clinical functions. May administer eye exams, administer eye medications, and instruct the patient in care and use of corrective lenses.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Take and document patients' medical histories.
Within reach(3)
- Take anatomical or functional ocular measurements of the eye or surrounding tissue, such as axial length measurements.
- Measure and record lens power, using lensometers.
- Assist patients to select eyewear.
Out of reach(16)
- Conduct tonometry or tonography tests to measure intraocular pressure.
- Operate ophthalmic equipment, such as autorefractors, phoropters, tomographs, or retinoscopes.
- Measure visual acuity, including near, distance, pinhole, or dynamic visual acuity, using appropriate tests.
- Administer topical ophthalmic or oral medications.
- Conduct visual field tests to measure field of vision.
and 11 more
Also called
Ophthalmic Assistant · Ophthalmic Tech (Ophthalmic Technician) · Ophthalmic Tech · Certified Ophthalmic Medical Technician (Certified Ophthalmic Medical Tech) · Certified Ophthalmic Technician (COT) · Ophthalmic Medical Assistant · Ophthalmic Medical Technician (Ophthalmic Medical Tech) · Certified Ophthalmic Medical Tech
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