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Professionals · code 2250

Veterinarians

Veterinarians diagnose, prevent and treat diseases, injuries and dysfunctions of animals. They may provide care to a wide range of animals or specialize in the treatment of a particular animal group or in a particular speciality area, or provide professional services to commercial firms producing biological and pharmaceutical products. Tasks include - (a) determining the presence and nature of abnormal conditions by physical examination, laboratory testing and through diagnostic imaging techniques including radiography and ultrasound; (b) treating animals medically and surgically, and administering and prescribing drugs, analgesics, and general and local anaesthetics; (c) performing surgery, dressing wounds and setting broken bones; (d) rendering obstetric and dental services to animals; (e) participating in programmes designed to prevent the occurrence and spread of animal diseases; (f) inoculating animals against, and testing for, infectious diseases and notifying authorities of outbreaks of infectious animal diseases; (g) performing autopsies to determine cause of death; (h) advising clients on health, nutrition and feeding, hygiene, breeding and care of animals; (i) providing euthanasia services for animals. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Animal pathologist - Veterinarian - Veterinary epidemiologist - Veterinary intern - Veterinary surgeon

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 64 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • animal chiropractor
  • specialised veterinarian
  • aquatic animal health professional
  • general veterinarian
  • official veterinarian

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

85.8
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 14.2 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 14.2 = 85.8

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

37.2
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

51.1
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 55.4 · hand skill 50 · cramped spaces 48 · 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 37.2 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 22, while the average is 14.2. 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. 22

    Advising clients on health, nutrition and feeding, hygiene, breeding and care of animals

    Very Low
  2. 21

    Determining the presence and nature of abnormal conditions by physical examination, laboratory testing and through diagnostic imaging techniques including radiography and ultrasound

    Very Low
  3. 16.5

    Participating in programmes designed to prevent the occurrence and spread of animal diseases

    Very Low
  4. 15

    Inoculating animals against, and testing for, infectious diseases and notifying authorities of outbreaks of infectious animal diseases

    Very Low
  5. 13

    Performing autopsies to determine cause of death

    Very Low
  6. 11.5

    Treating animals medically and surgically, and administering and prescribing drugs, analgesics, and general and local anaesthetics

    Very Low
  7. 10.8

    Rendering obstetric and dental services to animals

    Very Low
  8. 9.5

    Providing euthanasia services for animals.

    Very Low
  9. 8.5

    Performing surgery, dressing wounds and setting broken bones

    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
60
AI does it for you
22

Helping wins by 38 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 2347

Compared with similar jobs

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” group, averaging 61.1. This one is above that.