Will AI replace Radiologists?
AI reaches a large part of this job’s work.
49/100
High exposure
More exposed to AI than 78% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 10% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 68% of the work
What the job involves
Diagnose and treat diseases and injuries using medical imaging techniques, such as x rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine, and ultrasounds. May perform minimally invasive medical procedures and tests.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(3)
- Perform or interpret the outcomes of diagnostic imaging procedures including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computer tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), nuclear cardiology treadmill studies, mammography, or ultrasound.
- Document the performance, interpretation, or outcomes of all procedures performed.
- Prepare comprehensive interpretive reports of findings.
Within reach(17)
- Obtain patients' histories from electronic records, patient interviews, dictated reports, or by communicating with referring clinicians.
- Confer with medical professionals regarding image-based diagnoses.
- Review or transmit images and information using picture archiving or communications systems.
- Communicate examination results or diagnostic information to referring physicians, patients, or families.
- Develop or monitor procedures to ensure adequate quality control of images.
and 12 more
Out of reach(10)
- Instruct radiologic staff in desired techniques, positions, or projections.
- Administer radioisotopes to clinical patients or research subjects.
- Direct nuclear medicine technologists or technicians regarding desired dosages, techniques, positions, and projections.
- Prescribe radionuclides and dosages to be administered to individual patients.
- Review procedure requests and patients' medical histories to determine applicability of procedures and radioisotopes to be used.
and 5 more
Also called
Diagnostic Radiologist · Attending Physician · Interventional Radiologist · Radiologist · Interventional Neuroradiologist · Musculoskeletal Specialty Radiologist (MSK Specialty Radiologist) · Neuroradiologist · Nuclear Medicine Physician
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