Technicians and associate professionals · code 3211

Medical imaging and therapeutic equipment technicians

AI can help read the scan. Positioning a patient in pain still takes a person.

AI barely touches seven of the eight tasks, including positioning patients and giving radioactive tracers. Operating the imaging equipment is mostly out of its reach too.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Medical imaging and therapeutic equipment technicians test and operate radiographic, ultrasound and other medical imaging equipment to produce images of body structures for the diagnosis and treatment of injury, disease and other impairments. They may administer radiation treatments to patients under the supervision of a radiologist or other health professional. Tasks include - (a) operating or overseeing operation of radiologic, ultrasound and magnetic imaging equipment to produce images of the body for diagnostic purposes; (b) explaining procedures, observing and positioning patients, and using protection devices to ensure safety and comfort during examination, scan or treatment; (c) positioning imaging or treatment equipment, monitoring video displays, and adjusting settings and controls according to technical specifications; (d) reviewing and evaluating developed X-rays, videotape, or computer-generated information to determine if images are satisfactory for diagnostic purposes, and recording results of procedures; (e) monitoring patients’ conditions and reactions, reporting abnormal signs to a medical practitioner; (f) measuring and recording radiation dosage or radiopharmaceuticals received and used for patients, following prescriptions issued by a medical practitioner; (g) administering, detecting and mapping radiopharmaceuticals or radiation in patients’ bodies, using radioisotope, camera or other equipment for diagnosing and treating diseases; (h) recording and disposing of radioactive materials and storing radiopharmaceuticals, following radiation safety procedures. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Diagnostic medical radiographer - Magnetic resonance imaging technologist - Mammographer - Medical radiation therapist - Nuclear medicine technologist - Radiographer - Sonographer Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Medical physicist - 2111 - Radiologist - 2212 - Radiation protection expert - 2263 - Medical imaging assistant - 5329

clinical perfusion scientist

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

78 / 100

Mostly holds up against AI

AI can take a few chores off your plate, but most of the day is still yours.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Not Exposed

168 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 8 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 22 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 22 = 78.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Not Exposed”: None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Pinch of salt: this number is probably too rosy

It only asks what AI software could do, and this job is 61 out of 100 hands-on. A chatbot can't do that part. A robot might, one day, and nobody measures how close that is.

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Medical imaging and therapeutic equipment technicians 78

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

Image quality checks with AI.
Scan settings and protocols.
Dose and records management.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

Positioning and reassuring patients.
Radiation safety.
Spotting when a patient needs help.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

Working with AI-assisted imaging.
New scanners and therapy equipment.
Faster diagnostic pathways.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Low

30 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 65 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Higher

61 how hands-on

Most of this job needs hands, a body or turning up. That's robot territory, and nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to give you a number. We won't make one up.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Physical work where helping and caring for people is a big part of the job. For care work, whether a machine could do the movements is only half the question. The other half is whether anyone wants one to. The US data counts helping workmates too, so a few trades end up here.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 39 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

61 How
hands-on

39 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Hands-on, helping and caring for others

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, averaged across 5 US jobs .

finger skill 43.2 · hand skill 41.5 · cramped spaces 33.7 · averaged · rule: hands-on 50+ · caring 4+ of 7

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 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 27, against an average of 22. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

27
Operating or overseeing operation of radiologic, ultrasound and magnetic imaging equipment to produce images of the body for diagnostic purposes

Low
24
Reviewing and evaluating developed x-rays, video tape or computer generated information to determine if images are satisfactory for diagnostic purposes, and recording results of procedures

Very Low
23
Recording and disposing of radioactive materials and storing radiopharmaceuticals, following radiation safety procedures.

Very Low
22
Position imaging or treatment equipment, monitoring video displays, and adjusting settings and controls according to technical specifications

Very Low
22
Measuring and recording radiation dosage or radiopharmaceuticals received and used for patients, following prescription issued by a medical practitioner

Very Low
22
Monitoring patients' conditions and reactions, and reporting abnormal signs to a medical practitioner

Very Low
20
Administering, detecting and mapping radiopharmaceuticals or radiation in patients' bodies, using radioisotope, camera or other equipment for diagnosing and treating diseases

Very Low
17
Explaining procedures, observing and positioning patients, and using protection devices to ensure safety and comfort during examination, scan or treatment

Very Low

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

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you: 65
AI does it for you: 30

Sidekick wins, by 36 points.

How good a match is this?

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 2512, 3112

Meanwhile, in real life…

Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?

Tiny sample alert This job makes up under 0.01% of all the conversations: a tiny slice, mostly the paperwork rather than the work. People using AI for a job isn't the same as AI being able to do it.

Out of every 100 conversations

worked through it together handed it over

The small print

Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job.

The data is sorted by US job, and this one matches 5 of them. We've combined them, counting each by how often it comes up in the conversations, so the busiest one counts most.

These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.

observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product

So, should radiographers and imaging technicians be worried?

Short answer: not much. Some of the chores will change, and good riddance.

Some of it is changing. Operating imaging equipment is the most exposed task, rated Low; checking images, positioning and caring for patients rate Very Low. AI is already helping with image quality and reading, which changes the work but keeps people in the room.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 82 jobs in the “Technicians and associate professionals” family, averaging 65. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →