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Technicians and associate professionals · code 3254

Dispensing opticians

Dispensing opticians design, fit and dispense optical lenses based on a prescription from an ophthalmologist or optometrist for the correction of reduced visual acuity. They service corrective eyeglasses, contact lenses, low-vision aids and other optical devices. Tasks include - (a) examining and taking facial and eye measurements of clients for fitting of eyeglasses and other optical devices; (b) providing advice to clients on selection and maintenance of eyeglasses and frames, types of contact lenses and other optical devices for performance, safety, comfort and lifestyle; (c) interpreting optical prescriptions and preparing work orders for optical laboratories for grinding and mounting of lenses in frames, preparation of contact lenses and other required work; (d) verifying exactness of finished optical appliances and devices to the original prescription and fit of clients. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Contact lens optician - Dispensing optician Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Ophthalmologist - 2212 - Ophthalmic optician - 2267 - Optometrist - 2267 - Orthoptist - 2267

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 187 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • optician

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

76
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 24 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 24 = 76

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

43.3
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

31.3
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 44.6 · hand skill 41.1 · cramped spaces 8.3 · 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 43.3 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 32, while the average is 24. 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. 32

    Interpreting optical prescriptions and preparing work order for optical laboratory for grinding and mounting of lenses in frames, preparation of contact lenses and other required work

    Low
  2. 25

    Providing advice to clients with selection and maintenance of eyeglasses and frames, types of contact lenses and other optical devices for performance, safety, comfort and lifestyle

    Low
  3. 23

    Verifying exactness of finished optical appliances and devices to the original prescription and fit of clients.

    Very Low
  4. 16

    Examining and taking facial and eye measurements of clients for fitting of eyeglasses and other optical devices

    Very Low

4 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
61
AI does it for you
30

Helping wins by 31 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3999

Compared with similar jobs

There are 82 jobs in the “Technicians and associate professionals” group, averaging 65.3. This one is above that.