Will AI replace Ophthalmic Medical Technologists?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
8/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 15% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 3% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 15% of the work
What the job involves
Assist ophthalmologists by performing ophthalmic clinical functions and ophthalmic photography. Provide instruction and supervision to other ophthalmic personnel. Assist with minor surgical procedures, applying aseptic techniques and preparing instruments. May perform eye exams, administer eye medications, and instruct patients 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)
- Measure and record lens power, using lensometers.
- Calculate corrections for refractive errors.
- Educate patients on ophthalmic medical procedures, conditions of the eye, and appropriate use of medications.
Out of reach(27)
- Conduct tonometry or tonography tests to measure intraocular pressure.
- Take anatomical or functional ocular measurements, such as axial length measurements, of the eye or surrounding tissue.
- Measure visual acuity, including near, distance, pinhole, or dynamic visual acuity, using appropriate tests.
- Administer topical ophthalmic or oral medications.
- Clean or sterilize ophthalmic or surgical instruments.
and 22 more
Also called
Ophthalmic Technologist (Ophthalmic Tech) · Ophthalmic Tech · Certified Ophthalmic Medical Technologist (COMT) · Ophthalmic Medical Technologist (Ophthalmic Medical Tech) · Ophthalmic Photographer · Surgical Coordinator · COMT · Certified Retinal Angiographer
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