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Technicians and associate professionals · code 3240

Veterinary technicians and assistants

AI can read the X-ray. It can't hold a frightened dog still.

AI barely touches any of the ten tasks, from examining animals and taking samples to cleaning instruments and helping with animal dentistry.

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

Veterinary technicians and assistants carry out advisory, diagnostic, preventive and curative veterinary tasks, more limited in scope and complexity than those carried out by, and with the guidance of, veterinarians. They care for animals under treatment and in temporary residence at veterinary facilities, perform routine procedures and assist veterinarians to perform procedures and operations. Tasks include - (a) advising communities and individuals on the treatment of animals and their diseases and injuries; (b) conducting examinations of animals to make diagnoses or refer more difficult cases to veterinarians when needed; (c) treating ill or injured animals, especially for common diseases and disorders; (d) cleaning and sterilising examination tables and instruments and preparing materials used in the examination and treatment of animals; (e) carrying out technical tasks connected with artificial insemination of animals; (f) getting animals ready for examination or treatment and restraining or holding them during treatment; (g) assisting veterinarians to administer anaesthetics and oxygen during treatment; (h) placing animals in cages for recovery from operations and monitoring their condition; (i) producing radiographs, collecting samples, and performing other laboratory tests to assist in diagnosis of animal health problems; (j) performing routine animal dental procedures and assisting veterinarians with animal dentistry. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Artificial inseminator - Veterinary assistant - Veterinary nurse - Veterinary vaccinator Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Veterinarian - 2250 - Animal attendant - 5164 - Veterinary aide - 5164

  • veterinary technician
  • alternative animal therapist

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

86 / 100

Strongly holds up against AI

Most of this job still needs an actual human. AI would mostly be making the tea.

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

60 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 10 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 14.1 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 14.1 = 85.9.

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 62 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?

Veterinary technicians and assistants 86

v

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.

  • Reading X-rays and lab results with AI support.
  • Clinical notes and records.
  • Appointment reminders.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Handling and restraining nervous animals.
  • Monitoring animals recovering from surgery.
  • Calming worried owners.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Checking AI-assisted diagnostics.
  • Remote monitoring of recovering animals.
  • Wearable health trackers for pets.

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: Medium

36 could do without you

It could take over some of the work, and help with more. It could help with 65 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Higher

62 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 49 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

62 How
hands-on
49 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 2 US jobs .

finger skill 43.8 · hand skill 43.8 · cramped spaces 58.5 · 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 18, against an average of 14. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 18

    Producing radiographs, collecting samples and performing other laboratory tests to assist in diagnosis of animal health problems

    Very Low
  2. 17

    Conducting examinations of animals to make diagnoses or refer more difficult cases to veterinarians when needed

    Very Low
  3. 17

    Placing animals in cages for recovery from operations and monitoring their condition

    Very Low
  4. 16

    Getting animals ready for examination or treatment and restraining or holding them during treatment

    Very Low
  5. 14

    Treating ill or injured animals, especially for common diseases and disorders

    Very Low
  6. 14

    Carrying out technical tasks connected with artificial insemination of animals

    Very Low
  7. 13

    Advising communities and individuals on the treatment of animals and their diseases and injuries

    Very Low
  8. 12

    Assisting veterinarians to administer anaesthetics and oxygen during treatment

    Very Low
  9. 12

    Cleaning and sterilising examination tables and instruments and preparing materials used in the examination and treatment of animals

    Very Low
  10. 10

    Performing routine animal dental procedures and assisting veterinarians with animal dentistry.

    Very Low

10 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
36

Sidekick wins, by 29 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 3114, 3613

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 0.02% 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

45
55

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 2 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 vet techs and nurses be worried?

Short answer: not really. Put the kettle on.

No. Every task rates Very Low, from taking samples to restraining and treating animals. AI tools are starting to help with imaging and records, but the hands-on care stays with people.

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 →