Perform administrative and certain clinical duties under the direction of a physician. Administrative duties may include scheduling appointments, maintaining medical records, billing, and coding information for insurance purposes. Clinical duties may include taking and recording vital signs and medical histories, preparing patients for examination, drawing blood, and administering medications as directed by physician.
U.S. Workers
793,460
Median Salary
$44,200
10-Year Growth
+12.5%
Annual Openings
112,300
Typical entry: Postsecondary nondegree award
18 of 20 tasks have some AI capability
Exposure Trend
This score reflects estimated AI technical capability for tasks in this occupation. It does not predict employment changes, and it does not account for company-specific constraints, regulation, or adoption barriers.
Record patients' medical history, vital statistics, or information such as test results in medical records.
AI: Fully automatable - Conversational intake systems, speech-to-text, integrated devices and EHR automation can reliably record medical histories, vitals and test results in many clinical contexts by 2025.
Interview patients to obtain medical information and measure their vital signs, weight, and height.
AI: Fully automatable - Automated kiosks, telehealth/chat intake and clinical-grade devices can conduct interviews and measure vitals, weight and height without a human medical assistant in many settings by 2025.
Explain treatment procedures, medications, diets, or physicians' instructions to patients.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can generate clear, personalized explanations and interactive educational content for treatments, medications, diets, and physicians' instructions, enabling full automation of patient education workflows (with clinician oversight when needed).
Perform general office duties, such as answering telephones, taking dictation, or completing insurance forms.
AI: Fully automatable - AI systems can fully automate general office duties such as answering calls, taking dictation via speech-to-text, and completing insurance forms through integrations with practice management systems.
Greet and log in patients arriving at office or clinic.
AI: Fully automatable - Automated check-in kiosks and virtual reception agents allow AI to greet, register, and log patients arriving at clinics without human intervention.
Schedule appointments for patients.
AI: Fully automatable - AI scheduling systems can manage appointment availability, bookings, confirmations, and rescheduling end-to-end through integrations with calendar and EHR systems.
Contact medical facilities or departments to schedule patients for tests or admission.
AI: Fully automatable - AI and automated workflow tools can coordinate and communicate with other medical facilities to schedule tests or admissions via APIs, messaging, and call automation.
Inventory and order medical, lab, or office supplies or equipment.
AI: Fully automatable - Inventory tracking and automated ordering are well within current AI and software capabilities when integrated with supply chain and procurement systems.
Keep financial records or perform other bookkeeping duties, such as handling credit or collections or mailing monthly statements to patients.
AI: Fully automatable - Bookkeeping, billing, statements and routine collections workflows are readily automatable with existing AI and software systems and can be executed end‑to‑end by 2025.
Prepare treatment rooms for patient examinations, keeping the rooms neat and clean.
AI: Partial - Robotic cleaners and automated sterilization assist with room prep, but full clinical preparation and infection-control checks still require human staff and oversight.
Show patients to examination rooms and prepare them for the physician.
AI: Partial - Wayfinding robots and digital instructions can show and prep patients to some extent, but physically escorting and nuanced preparation typically still need human assistance.
Prepare and administer medications as directed by a physician.
AI: Partial - Pharmacy automation and smart pumps can prepare and deliver certain medications, but many preparations and bedside administrations (injections/IVs) require human clinical judgment and manual action.
Authorize drug refills and provide prescription information to pharmacies.
AI: Partial - AI can draft, validate, and transmit refill requests and provide prescription information, but it cannot legally or ethically authorize prescriptions without clinician sign-off and human accountability.
Collect blood, tissue, or other laboratory specimens, log the specimens, and prepare them for testing.
AI: Partial - Specimen logging and pre-analytic processing are largely automatable, but reliable automated collection of blood/tissue remains limited so human phlebotomists are usually required.
Clean and sterilize instruments and dispose of contaminated supplies.
AI: Partial - AI cannot perform physical cleaning or sterilization but can provide SOPs, training, checklists, and monitoring to partially automate and improve compliance for those tasks.
Perform routine laboratory tests and sample analyses.
AI: Partial - AI can automate analysis, instrument control, and result interpretation for many routine lab tests, but physical specimen handling, some assays, and regulatory oversight mean the task is only partially automatable today.
Operate x-ray, electrocardiogram (EKG), or other equipment to administer routine diagnostic tests.
AI: Partial - By 2025 AI can automate imaging protocols, analyze outputs, and assist with device control and patient positioning guidance, but cannot fully replace credentialed technicians' hands‑on responsibilities and regulatory oversight.
Set up medical laboratory equipment.
AI: Partial - AI and automation can configure and validate many lab instruments remotely and manage workflows, but physical setup, calibration and troubleshooting often still require human intervention.
Help physicians examine and treat patients, handing them instruments or materials or performing such tasks as giving injections or removing sutures.
AI: Not automatable - This task requires hands-on physical assistance (handing instruments, injections, suture removal) that AI alone cannot perform in clinical settings without advanced robotics and human clinical oversight.
Change dressings on wounds.
AI: Not automatable - Changing dressings is an aseptic, hands‑on clinical task requiring fine motor skill and infection‑control judgment that AI cannot perform autonomously in clinical settings by 2025.