# Will opticians be replaced by AI? Updated October 2026 Opticians score 32 of 100 for AI exposure. 56% of their task time still needs a person. AI can do 19% today and speed up another 25%. - **19%** AI can do it - **25%** AI helps - **56%** Needs a person Moderate exposure Lower than 59% of the 923 occupations we scored. ## Task by task We graded 21 tasks, listed here from most to least exposed. AI can do 4 of them today, speeds up 5 and leaves 12 to people. | Task | AI exposure | | --- | --- | | Maintain records of customer prescriptions, work orders, and payments. Digital record keeping of prescriptions, orders, payments. | 80% AI can do it | | Perform administrative duties, such as tracking inventory and sales, submitting patient insurance information, and performing simple bookkeeping. Inventory, sales tracking, insurance forms, bookkeeping are digital. | 80% AI can do it | | Prepare work orders and instructions for grinding lenses and fabricating eyeglasses. Work order and lab instructions generated from prescription data. | 75% AI can do it | | Order and purchase frames and lenses. Ordering frames and lenses is mostly online procurement. | 62% AI can do it | | Evaluate prescriptions in conjunction with clients' vocational and avocational visual requirements. AI can cross-check prescriptions against stated visual demands. | 50% AI helps | ## How opticians compare All occupations (923) Healthcare practitioners and technical (89) **Opticians score 32**, marked by the dark line. Each dot is a score, darker where more occupations share it. The short marks show the averages, 37 for all occupations and 34 for healthcare practitioners and technical. ## Pay and outlook in the US Median pay $47,260 a year, May 2025 People employed 73,530 in the US, May 2025 Projected change in jobs +4.2% from 2024 to 2034 ## Skills to build - Run prescription checks in First Insight MaximEyes - Fit and adjust frames manually with pliers - Fabricate lenses to prescription specifications on the bench - Hold ABO and NCLE optician certification - Teach contact lens insertion and removal to patients - Verify finished spectacles against work orders in OfficeMate ## Safer roles nearby 5 related occupations with lower scores. - [Ophthalmic laboratory technicians20 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/ophthalmic-laboratory-technicians/) - [Optometrists27 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/optometrists/) - [Ophthalmic medical technicians17 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/ophthalmic-medical-technicians/) - [Ophthalmic medical technologists29 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/ophthalmic-medical-technologists/) - [Endoscopy technicians19 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/endoscopy-technicians/) ## Questions about opticians and AI Will AI replace opticians? Partly. About 3 in 10 of an optician's working hours go to tasks AI can already do, mostly record keeping and work orders. Lens fabrication, frame fitting and contact lens teaching stay with people because they need hands on the frame and a face-to-face visit with the client. Which optician tasks is AI taking over? Record keeping, bookkeeping and lab work orders are changing fastest. Keeping prescriptions, orders and payments in digital systems scores 80 on exposure, and generating grinding instructions from prescription data scores 75. Ordering frames and lenses online scores 62. Which optician tasks stay human? Hands-on frame work and lens fabrication stay with people. Bending frames with pliers, repairing damaged frames and fabricating lenses all score 8 or below on exposure. Showing a client how to insert and remove contact lenses also scores 8, because it needs a person's hands at the client's eye. How can opticians stay valuable as AI takes over paperwork? Spend the hours freed from records on frame fitting and lens checks. Check prescriptions against a client's work and screen demands, and call the examining optometrist when a prescription looks wrong. Get fluent in First Insight MaximEyes or Compulink Eyecare Advantage so you can run the full dispensing workflow. ## Related jobs - [Medical equipment preparers25 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/medical-equipment-preparers/) - [Pharmacy technicians44 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/pharmacy-technicians/) - [Medical assistants32 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/medical-assistants/) - [Dental assistants26 out of 100](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/dental-assistants/) ## Next steps for opticians - ### Check your job Your job title is a rough guide. Your actual tasks decide your score. Paste your job description or CV and see which of your tasks AI can do. [Check your job](https://www.aigentcy.com/tools/ai-exposure-checker/) [Check your CV](https://www.aigentcy.com/tools/cv-checker/) ### Check which roles in your team AI can take on We map your team's tasks, show what AI can do today and build the automations that pay back first. [Book an AI audit](https://www.aigentcy.com/audit/) ## Related topics - [**Jobs AI can't replace**Cement masons score lowest, at 8.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/jobs-ai-cant-replace/) - [**Jobs most at risk from AI**Proofreaders score highest, at 76.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/jobs-most-exposed-to-ai/) - [**High-paying jobs with low AI exposure**Radiologists earn a median $420,860 and score 46.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/high-paying-jobs-low-ai-exposure/) - [**Entry-level jobs with low AI exposure**Cement masons need little prior training and score 8.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/entry-level-jobs-low-ai-exposure/) - [**Jobs AI speeds up the most**For natural sciences managers, AI speeds up 96% of task time.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/jobs-ai-speeds-up/) - [**AI and jobs in Malta**15 iGaming roles graded task by task.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/malta/) - [**Skills that keep work human**The skills to build in the jobs AI changes least.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/skills/) - [**Jobs A to Z**Every job we publish, by first letter.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/jobs/) - [**AI exposure by industry**Average scores for 22 occupation groups.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/industries/) - [**Write a CV screening software can read**How applicant tracking systems read a CV, and what to change.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/cv-screening-guide/) - [**AI for businesses**The tasks to automate first in each team and industry.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-for/) - [**How we score AI exposure**The grading, the weights and every source.](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/methodology/) Occupation data from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and modified by Aigentcy. O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. Wage, employment and projection data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. EU occupation names from ESCO, European Commission. AI usage signals from the Anthropic Economic Index (CC BY) and Microsoft Research (CC BY 4.0). [Methodology and sources](https://www.aigentcy.com/ai-exposure/methodology/). Scores © Aigentcy. Quote them with a link to the page.