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Professionals · code 2113

Chemists

Chemists conduct research, improve or develop concepts, theories and operational methods, or apply scientific knowledge relating to chemistry, to develop new knowledge or products and for quality and process control. Tasks include - (a) conducting research and improving or developing concepts, instruments, theories and operational methods related to chemistry; (b) conducting experiments, tests and analyses to investigate chemical composition and energy and chemical changes in various natural or synthetic substances, materials and products; (c) developing procedures for environmental control, quality control and various other procedures for manufacturers or users; (d) conducting programmes of sample and data collection and analysis to identify and quantify environmental toxicants; (e) participating in interdisciplinary research and development projects working with chemical engineers, biologists, microbiologists, agronomists, geologists or other professionals; (f) using micro-organisms to convert substances into new compounds; (g) determining ways to strengthen or combine materials or develop new materials. (h) reproducing and synthesizing naturally occurring substances and creating new artificial substances; (i) preparing scientific papers and reports. Example of the occupations classified here: - Chemist Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Biochemist - 2131 - Pharmacologist - 2131 - Pharmacist - 2262

A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't. It ranks 319 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • sensory scientist
  • chemist

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

61.3
Holds up
against AI Minimal Exposure

AI could take on 38.7 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 38.7 = 61.3

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

36.4
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs

22.6
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 33.1 · hand skill 26.7 · cramped spaces 8.1 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 36.4 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 55, while the average is 38.7. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 55

    Conducting research and improving or developing concepts, instruments, theories and operational methods related to chemistry

    Medium
  2. 51

    Preparing scientific papers and reports.

    Medium
  3. 42.5

    Reproducing and synthesizing naturally occurring substances and creating new artificial substances

    Low
  4. 38.5

    Developing procedures for environmental control, quality control and various other procedures for manufacturers or users

    Low
  5. 38.5

    Conducting programmes of sample and data collection and analysis to identify and quantify environmental toxicants

    Low
  6. 36.8

    Conducting experiments, tests and analyses to investigate chemical composition and energy and chemical changes in various natural or synthetic substances, materials and products

    Low
  7. 35

    Participating in interdisciplinary research and development projects working with chemical engineers, biologists, microbiologists, agronomists, geologists or other professionals

    Low
  8. 29

    Determining ways to strengthen or combine materials or develop new materials.

    Low
  9. 22.5

    Using micro-organisms to convert substances into new compounds

    Very Low

9 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

AI helps you
74
AI does it for you
33

Helping wins by 41 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 2342

Compared with similar jobs

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” group, averaging 61.3. This one is below that.