AI exposure: Pharmacy Technicians
Prepare medications under the direction of a pharmacist. May measure, mix, count out, label, and record amounts and dosages of medications according to prescription orders.
Reading this score
computed36.9% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Pharmacy Technicians at the 64th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 2.3 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.
No single friction dominates this occupation. The strongest is accountability at 1.57 out of 3 and the weakest is presence at 0.76, which is a narrow spread. Where nothing structural stands in the way, exposure tracks capability almost directly, and capability is the thing that changes every quarter.
The most exposed thing this job does is Enter prescription information into computer databases, at 86.7%. The least is Transfer medication from vials to the appropriate number of sterile, disposable syringes, at 0.0%. A gap of 86.7% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within healthcare practitioner and technical occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 89 roles in the group is 18.4%, and only 3 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 21 tasks, 16 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 5 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take a change in who is permitted to sign the work, which is a question for regulators rather than for engineers. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
21 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enter prescription information into computer databases. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 4.75 | exposed |
| Assist customers by answering simple questions, locating items, or referring them to the pharmacist for medication information. | 83.3% | 16.7% | 0.0% | 4.53 | exposed |
| Establish or maintain patient profiles, including lists of medications taken by individual patients. | 53.3% | 46.7% | 0.0% | 4.71 | exposed |
| Receive written prescription or refill requests and verify that information is complete and accurate. | 49.6% | 37.9% | 12.5% | 4.86 | exposed |
| Compute charges for medication or equipment dispensed to hospital patients and enter data in computer. | 47.5% | 27.5% | 25.0% | 4.71 | exposed |
| Prepare and process medical insurance claim forms and records. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.66 | exposed |
| Maintain and merchandise home healthcare products or services. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.62 | exposed |
| Price stock and mark items for sale. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.57 | exposed |
| Supply and monitor robotic machines that dispense medicine into containers and label the containers. | 41.7% | 20.8% | 37.5% | 4.39 | exposed |
| Answer telephones, responding to questions or requests. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.56 | exposed |
| Price and file prescriptions that have been filled. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.44 | exposed |
| Order, label, and count stock of medications, chemicals, or supplies and enter inventory data into computer. | 39.6% | 22.9% | 37.5% | 4.40 | exposed |
| Deliver medications or pharmaceutical supplies to patients, nursing stations, or surgery. | 38.3% | 11.7% | 50.0% | 4.36 | exposed |
| Maintain proper storage and security conditions for drugs. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.66 | exposed |
| Receive and store incoming supplies, verify quantities against invoices, check for outdated medications in current inventory, and inform supervisors of stock needs and shortages. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.60 | exposed |
| Operate cash registers to accept payment from customers. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.51 | exposed |
| Restock intravenous (IV) supplies and add measured drugs or nutrients to IV solutions under sterile conditions to prepare IV packs for various uses, such as chemotherapy medication. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.44 | untouched |
| Mix pharmaceutical preparations, according to written prescriptions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.44 | untouched |
| Clean and help maintain equipment or work areas and sterilize glassware, according to prescribed methods. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.36 | untouched |
| Prepack bulk medicines, fill bottles with prescribed medications, and type and affix labels. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.34 | untouched |
| Transfer medication from vials to the appropriate number of sterile, disposable syringes, using aseptic techniques. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.47 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 2.26 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.38 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.76 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.57 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.52 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.56 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.