Professionals · code 2262
Pharmacists
Pharmacists store, preserve, compound and dispense medicinal products and counsel on the proper use and adverse effects of drugs and medicines following prescriptions issued by medical doctors and other health professionals. They contribute to researching, testing, preparing, prescribing and monitoring medicinal therapies for optimizing human health. Tasks include - (a) receiving prescriptions for medicinal products from medical doctors and other health professionals, checking patients’ medicine histories, and ensuring proper dosage and methods of administration and drug compatibility before dispensing; (b) preparing or supervising the preparation and labelling of liquid medicines, ointments, powders, tablets and other medications to fill prescriptions; (c) providing information and advice to prescribers and clients regarding drug interactions, incompatibility and contraindications, side effects, dosage and proper medication storage; (d) collaborating with other health care professionals to plan, monitor, review, and evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the medicine therapy of individual patients, and the effectiveness of particular drugs or therapies; (e) maintaining prescription files and recording the issue of narcotics, poisons and habit-forming drugs in accordance with legal and professional requirements; (f) storing and preserving vaccines, serums and other drugs subject to deterioration; (g) advising clients on and supplying non-prescription medicines and diagnostic and therapeutic aids for common conditions; (h) supervising and coordinating the work of pharmacy technicians, pharmacy interns and pharmacy sales assistants; (i) conducting research to develop and improve pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and related chemical products; (j) conferring with chemists, engineering professionals and other professionals about manufacturing techniques and ingredients; (k) testing and analysing drugs to determine their identity, purity and strength in relation to specified standards; (l) evaluating labels, packaging and advertising of drug products; (m) developing information and risks of particular drugs. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Dispensing chemist - Hospital pharmacist - Industrial pharmacist - Retail pharmacist Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Pharmacologist - 2131 - Pharmaceutical technician - 3213
A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't. It ranks 264 of 427 for holding up against AI.
Also known as
- pharmacist
Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.
against AI Minimal Exposure
AI could take on 33.2 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 33.2 = 66.8
That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.
out of 100
From O*NET, matched to one US job
and cramped
finger skill 37.4 · hand skill 34 · cramped spaces 9.7 · 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 24.3 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 50.2, while the average is 33.2. 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.
- 50.2
Providing information and advice to prescribers and clients regarding drug interactions, incompatibility and contraindications, side effects, dosage and proper medication storage
Medium - 40.8
Maintaining prescription files and recording issue of narcotics, poisons and habit-forming drugs in accordance with legal and professional requirements
Low - 36.5
Evaluating labels, packaging and advertising of drug products
Low - 35.8
Testing and analysing drugs to determine their identity, purity and strength in relation to specified standards
Low - 35.5
Developing information and risks of particular drugs.
Low - 34.8
Advising clients on and supplying non-prescription medicines and diagnostic and therapeutic aids for common conditions
Low - 33.8
Supervising and coordinating the work of pharmacy technicians, pharmacy interns and pharmacy sales assistants
Low - 33.5
Receiving prescriptions for medicinal products from medical doctors and other health professionals, checking patients' medicine histories, and ensuring proper dosage and methods of administration and drug compatibility before dispensing
Low - 33.5
Conferring with chemists, engineering professionals and other professionals about manufacturing techniques and ingredients
Low - 32
Conducting research to develop and improve pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and related chemical products
Low - 31
Collaborating with other health care professionals to plan, monitor, review, and evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the medicine therapy of individual patients, and the effectiveness of particular drugs or therapies
Low - 24
Preparing or supervising the preparation and labelling of liquid medicines, ointments, powders, tablets and other medications to fill prescriptions
Very Low - 10.8
Storing and preserving vaccines, serums and other drugs subject to deterioration
Very Low
13 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, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.
- AI helps you
- 68
- AI does it for you
- 32
Helping wins by 36 points.
estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 2515
Compared with similar jobs
There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” group, averaging 61.3. This one is above that.
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