Will AI replace Surgical Technologists?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
2/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 5% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 4% of the work
What the job involves
Assist in operations, under the supervision of surgeons, registered nurses, or other surgical personnel. May help set up operating room, prepare and transport patients for surgery, adjust lights and equipment, pass instruments and other supplies to surgeons and surgeons' assistants, hold retractors, cut sutures, and help count sponges, needles, supplies, and instruments.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(1)
- Maintain files and records of surgical procedures.
Out of reach(15)
- Maintain a proper sterile field during surgical procedures.
- Count sponges, needles, and instruments before and after operation.
- Hand instruments and supplies to surgeons and surgeons' assistants, hold retractors and cut sutures, and perform other tasks as directed by surgeon during operation.
- Prepare patients for surgery, including positioning patients on the operating table and covering them with sterile surgical drapes to prevent exposure.
- Scrub arms and hands and assist the surgical team to scrub and put on gloves, masks, and surgical clothing.
and 10 more
Also called
OR Tech (Operating Room Technician) · OR Tech · Scrub Technician (Scrub Tech) · Scrub Tech · CST (Certified Surgical Technologist) · Surgical Scrub Technologist (Surgical Scrub Tech) · CST · Surgical Orderly
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