Will opticians be replaced by AI?
Updated
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 |
| Obtain a customer's previous record, or verify a prescription with the examining optometrist or ophthalmologist. AI can draft verification requests; calls remain human. | 50% AI helps |
| Recommend specific lenses, lens coatings, and frames to suit client needs. AI can suggest lens and coating options; optician confirms. | 45% AI helps |
| Assist clients in selecting frames according to style and color, and ensure that frames are coordinated with facial and eye measurements and optical prescriptions. Frame choice needs trying on; AI can check fit data. | 28% AI helps |
| Sell goods such as contact lenses, spectacles, sunglasses, and goods related to eyes, in general. In-person sales mostly; AI helps with recommendations and upsell. | 25% AI helps |
| Instruct clients in how to wear and care for eyeglasses. In-person wear and care instruction; handouts can be AI-drafted. | 18% Needs a person |
Show the other 11 tasks
| Task | AI exposure |
|---|---|
| Verify that finished lenses are ground to specifications. Hands-on lensometer checks of finished lenses. | 15% Needs a person |
| Measure clients' bridge and eye size, temple length, vertex distance, pupillary distance, and optical centers of eyes, using measuring devices. Physical measuring with devices on the client's face. | 12% Needs a person |
| Determine clients' current lens prescriptions, when necessary, using lensometers or lens analyzers and clients' eyeglasses. Lensometer readings require operating instruments on glasses. | 12% Needs a person |
| Supervise the training of student opticians. Supervising trainees is live human mentoring. | 12% Needs a person |
| Show customers how to insert, remove, and care for their contact lenses. Hands-on demonstration of inserting and removing contacts. | 8% Needs a person |
| Fabricate lenses to meet prescription specifications. Lens fabrication is machine and bench work. | 8% Needs a person |
| Assemble eyeglasses by cutting and edging lenses, and fitting the lenses into frames. Cutting, edging and fitting lenses is physical assembly. | 8% Needs a person |
| Grind lens edges, or apply coatings to lenses. Edge grinding and coating application are machine tasks. | 6% Needs a person |
| Arrange and maintain displays of optical merchandise. Physical merchandising of displays in a store. | 5% Needs a person |
| Heat, shape, or bend plastic or metal frames to adjust eyeglasses to fit clients, using pliers and hands. Bending and heating frames manually is physical work. | 4% Needs a person |
| Repair damaged frames. Physical repair of damaged frames requires skilled human hands. | 4% Needs a person |
How opticians compare
All occupations (923)
Healthcare practitioners and technical (89)
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.
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.
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Next steps for opticians
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