Will AI replace Orthoptists?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
38/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 59% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 9% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 57% of the work
What the job involves
Diagnose and treat visual system disorders such as binocular vision and eye movement impairments.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(2)
- Interpret clinical or diagnostic test results.
- Prepare diagnostic or treatment reports for other medical practitioners or therapists.
Within reach(7)
- Evaluate, diagnose, or treat disorders of the visual system with an emphasis on binocular vision or abnormal eye movements.
- Develop nonsurgical treatment plans for patients with conditions such as strabismus, nystagmus, and other visual disorders.
- Provide instructions to patients or family members concerning diagnoses or treatment plans.
- Refer patients to ophthalmic surgeons or other physicians.
- Participate in clinical research projects.
and 2 more
Out of reach(7)
- Examine patients with problems related to ocular motility, binocular vision, amblyopia, or strabismus.
- Perform diagnostic tests or measurements, such as motor testing, visual acuity testing, lensometry, retinoscopy, and color vision testing.
- Provide nonsurgical interventions, including corrective lenses, patches, drops, fusion exercises, or stereograms, to treat conditions such as strabismus, heterophoria, and convergence insufficiency.
- Develop or use special test and communication techniques to facilitate diagnosis and treatment of children or patients with disabilities.
- Provide training related to clinical methods or orthoptics to students, resident physicians, or other health professionals.
and 2 more
Also called
CO (Certified Orthoptist) · CO · Clinical Orthoptist (CO)
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