Will AI replace Opticians, Dispensing?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
25/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 42% 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
Design, measure, fit, and adapt lenses and frames for client according to written optical prescription or specification. Assist client with inserting, removing, and caring for contact lenses. Assist client with selecting frames. Measure customer for size of eyeglasses and coordinate frames with facial and eye measurements and optical prescription. Prepare work order for optical laboratory containing instructions for grinding and mounting lenses in frames. Verify exactness of finished lens spectacles. Adjust frame and lens position to fit client. May shape or reshape frames. Includes contact lens opticians.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(7)
- Recommend specific lenses, lens coatings, and frames to suit client needs.
- Prepare work orders and instructions for grinding lenses and fabricating eyeglasses.
- Obtain a customer's previous record, or verify a prescription with the examining optometrist or ophthalmologist.
- Sell goods such as contact lenses, spectacles, sunglasses, and goods related to eyes, in general.
- Maintain records of customer prescriptions, work orders, and payments.
and 2 more
Out of reach(14)
- Measure clients' bridge and eye size, temple length, vertex distance, pupillary distance, and optical centers of eyes, using measuring devices.
- Verify that finished lenses are ground to specifications.
- Assist clients in selecting frames according to style and color, and ensure that frames are coordinated with facial and eye measurements and optical prescriptions.
- Heat, shape, or bend plastic or metal frames to adjust eyeglasses to fit clients, using pliers and hands.
- Determine clients' current lens prescriptions, when necessary, using lensometers or lens analyzers and clients' eyeglasses.
and 9 more
Also called
Optician · Licensed Optician · Ophthalmic Dispenser · Optical Dispenser · Certified Optician · Contact Lens Technician · Dispensing Optician · Licensed Dispensing Optician (LDO)
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