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Technicians and associate professionals · code 3256

Medical assistants

Medical assistants perform basic clinical and administrative tasks to support patient care under the direct supervision of a medical practitioner or other health professional. Tasks include - (a) interviewing patients and their families to obtain information on their health status and medical history; (b) assisting medical doctors and other health professionals to examine and treat patients, including measuring and recording vital signs, administering medications and performing routine clinical procedures such as giving injections and removing sutures; (c) getting patients ready for examination and treatment, including explaining procedures and showing them to examination rooms; (d) preparing and handling medical instruments and supplies, including sterilizing instruments and disposing of contaminated supplies in accordance with safety procedures; (e) collecting blood, tissue or other specimens, and preparing them for laboratory testing; (f) providing information to patients and families on health care topics including medications prescribed by a medical doctor or other health professional; (g) providing prescription and drug refill information to pharmacies; (h) maintaining cleanliness of patient waiting and examination rooms; (i) recording information on patients’ medical history, diagnostic testing and treatment procedures and results, and other information in medical record-keeping systems; (j) scheduling appointments with patients, and preparing documentation required for billing, reporting and insurance purposes. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Clinical assistant - Medical assistant - Ophthalmic assistant Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Clinical officer (paramedical) - 2240 - Medical prosthetic technician - 3214 - Dental assistant - 3251 - Physiotherapy assistant - 3255 - Medical secretary - 3344 - Medical imaging assistant - 5329 Note Occupations included in this unit group normally require formal training in health services provision. Clinical care providers with advanced training and skills to provide independent medical diagnostic and treatment services are classified in Unit Group 2240: Paramedical Practitioners.

The mildest of the ILO’s four “exposed” groups. It ranks 270 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • doctors' surgery assistant

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

65.4
Holds up
against AI Exposed: Gradient 1

AI could take on 34.6 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 34.6 = 65.4

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

41.5
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs

30.9
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 44.7 · hand skill 35.7 · cramped spaces 12.2 · 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 41.5 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 65, while the average is 34.6. 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. 65

    Providing prescription and drug refill information to pharmacies

    Medium
  2. 63.8

    Scheduling appointments with patients, and preparing documentation required for billing, reporting and insurance purposes.

    Medium
  3. 61.3

    Recording information on patients' medical history, diagnostic testing and treatment procedures and results, and other information in medical records-keeping systems

    Medium
  4. 53

    Providing information to patients and families on health care topics including medications prescribed by a medical doctor or other health professional

    Medium
  5. 25

    Getting patients ready for examination and treatment, including explaining procedures and showing them to examination rooms

    Low
  6. 24

    Interviewing patients and their families to obtain information on their health status and medical history

    Very Low
  7. 15

    Preparing and handling medical instruments and supplies, including sterilizing instruments and disposing of contaminated supplies in accordance with safety procedures

    Very Low
  8. 15

    Collecting blood, tissue or other specimens, and preparing them for laboratory testing

    Very Low
  9. 13.8

    Assisting medical doctors and other health professionals to examine and treat patients, including measuring and recording vital signs, administering medications and performing routine clinical procedures such as giving injections and removing sutures

    Very Low
  10. 10.3

    Maintaining cleanliness of patient waiting and examination rooms

    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.

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

AI helps you
69
AI does it for you
29

Helping wins by 40 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3112

Compared with similar jobs

There are 82 jobs in the “Technicians and associate professionals” group, averaging 65.4. This one is below that.