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Technicians and associate professionals · code 3240

Veterinary technicians and assistants

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

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 60 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • 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.

85.9
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 14.1 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 14.1 = 85.9

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

61.6
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs

48.7
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 43.8 · hand skill 43.8 · cramped spaces 58.5 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · caring 4+ of 7 Hands-on, helping and caring for others

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.

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

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 61.6 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

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 17.8, while the average is 14.1. 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. 17.8

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

    Very Low
  2. 16.5

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

    Very Low
  3. 16.5

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

    Very Low
  4. 15.5

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

    Very Low
  5. 13.8

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

    Very Low
  6. 13.5

    Carrying out technical tasks connected with artificial insemination of animals

    Very Low
  7. 13.3

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

    Very Low
  8. 12.3

    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 0.7-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.

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

AI helps you
64.5
AI does it for you
35.5

Helping wins by 29 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3114, 3613

Compared with similar jobs

There are 82 jobs in the “Technicians and associate professionals” group, averaging 65.1. This one is above that.