Will AI replace Photonics Technicians?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
23/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 39% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 36% of the work
What the job involves
Build, install, test, or maintain optical or fiber optic equipment, such as lasers, lenses, or mirrors, using spectrometers, interferometers, or related equipment.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(7)
- Compute or record photonic test data.
- Assist engineers in the development of new products, fixtures, tools, or processes.
- Document procedures, such as calibration of optical or fiber optic equipment.
- Assist scientists or engineers in the conduct of photonic experiments.
- Recommend optical or optic equipment design or material changes to reduce costs or processing times.
and 2 more
Out of reach(17)
- Adjust or maintain equipment, such as lasers, laser systems, microscopes, oscilloscopes, pulse generators, power meters, beam analyzers, or energy measurement devices.
- Maintain clean working environments, according to clean room standards.
- Set up or operate assembly or processing equipment, such as lasers, cameras, die bonders, wire bonders, dispensers, reflow ovens, soldering irons, die shears, wire pull testers, temperature or humidity chambers, or optical spectrum analyzers.
- Test or perform failure analysis for optomechanical or optoelectrical products, according to test plans.
- Assemble fiber optical, optoelectronic, or free-space optics components, subcomponents, assemblies, or subassemblies.
and 12 more
Also called
Fiber Optics Technician (Fiber Optics Tech) · Laser Technician (Laser Tech) · Fiber Optics Tech · Laser Tech · Photonics Technician (Photonics Tech) · Optics Manufacturing Technician (Optics Manufacturing Tech) · Optics Manufacturing Tech · Photonics Tech
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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