Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary

Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can generate syllabi, homework, handouts, and adapt materials to learning objectives quickly and to a high standard, requiring only human review.

Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and chemical separation.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can prepare detailed lecture content and deliver it via recorded or live synthetic modalities and support interactive Q&A, effectively handling most lecturing tasks.

Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can generate exam items, administer assessments with proctoring technologies, and grade objective and many rubric-based responses at scale.

Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.

AI: Fully automatable - Record-keeping (attendance, grades, required records) can be fully automated by LMSs and AI-driven workflows that capture, validate, and store data.

Compile bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can reliably search literature databases, organize results, and produce formatted bibliographies for specialized reading lists with high accuracy when connected to curated sources.

Prepare and submit required reports related to instruction.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can generate, validate, and—through integrations—automatically submit standardized instructional reports, making this task fully automatable in many contexts by 2025.

Evaluate and grade students' class work, laboratory performance, assignments, and papers.

AI: Partial - AI can fully grade objective problems and assist with rubric-based essay grading but struggles with holistic assessment of lab performance and nuanced pedagogical judgments.

Supervise students' laboratory work.

AI: Partial - AI can assist supervision via remote monitoring, guidance, and checklists but cannot assume full responsibility for hands-on, safety-critical in-person laboratory oversight.

Establish, teach, and monitor students' compliance with safety rules for handling chemicals, equipment, and other hazardous materials.

AI: Partial - AI can establish training, deliver safety instruction, and monitor compliance with sensors and video analysis but cannot fully enforce or take legal responsibility for hazardous-material safety in person.

Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, and course materials and methods of instruction.

AI: Partial - AI can analyze outcomes, propose curriculum revisions, and draft course content, but strategic curricular planning and accreditation decisions still require human judgment and oversight.

Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.

AI: Partial - AI can support supervision by monitoring progress, giving feedback, and matching mentors, but cannot fully replace human mentorship, evaluation, and institutional leadership in research and internships.

Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.

AI: Partial - AI can initiate and moderate online/asynchronous discussions and provide prompts, but cannot fully replicate the real-time pedagogical judgment and social dynamics of a human instructor.

Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media.

AI: Partial - AI can accelerate literature review, analysis, and manuscript drafting, but cannot yet independently design, execute wet-lab experiments or reliably claim original authorship and scientific judgment without human researchers.

Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.

AI: Partial - Virtual assistants and chatbots can schedule and field many student questions outside office hours, but nuanced advising and interpersonal mentorship still require human faculty presence.

Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.

AI: Partial - AI can continuously scan, summarize, and alert on new literature, but engaging colleagues and participatory conference activities and the interpretive integration of developments still depend on humans.

Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues.

AI: Partial - AI can provide personalized academic and career information and simulations, yet tailored vocational counseling and deep mentorship remain human responsibilities.

Write grant proposals to procure external research funding.

AI: Partial - AI can draft competitive proposals, assemble budgets, and format submissions, but strategic framing, institutional coordination, and credibility-building with funders require human leadership and oversight.

Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.

AI: Partial - AI tools can support collaboration by drafting documents, coordinating tasks, and synthesizing input, but cannot fully replace human negotiation, trust-building, and joint intellectual leadership.

Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.

AI: Partial - AI can produce meeting materials, minutes, and policy drafts, but serving on committees involves governance, political judgment, and responsibilities that cannot be fully automated.

Select, order, and maintain materials and supplies for teaching and research, such as textbooks, chemicals, and laboratory equipment.

AI: Partial - Procurement and inventory management can be largely automated, but expert selection of textbooks, chemicals, and specialized equipment and safety/regulatory decisions still require human oversight.

Perform administrative duties, such as serving as a department head.

AI: Partial - AI can assist heavily with administrative tasks like scheduling, budgeting, and report generation but cannot fully perform leadership, personnel management, and judgement-heavy duties of a department head.

Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.

AI: Partial - AI can automate outreach, communications, candidate screening, and scheduling but cannot fully replicate human judgment, relationship-building, and institution-specific placement decisions.

Serve on committees or in professional societies.

AI: Partial - AI can draft documents, prepare background materials, and summarize meetings for committees or societies but cannot authentically serve as a human member with fiduciary, representational, and deliberative responsibilities.

Act as advisers to student organizations.

AI: Partial - AI can provide resources, planning help, and ongoing virtual guidance to student organizations but lacks the human mentorship, accountability, and in-person support that advisers provide.

Participate in campus and community events.

AI: Partial - AI can support planning, promotion, virtual participation, and coordination for events but cannot fully replace human presence, networking, and community relationship-building at campus events.

Provide professional consulting services to government or industry.

AI: Partial - AI can produce technical analyses, models, and written recommendations for government or industry clients but cannot independently assume contractual responsibility, client relations, or high‑stakes advisory roles without human oversight.