AI exposure: Surgical Technologists
Assist in operations, under the supervision of surgeons, registered nurses, or other surgical personnel. May help set up operating room, prepare and transport patients for surgery, adjust lights and equipment, pass instruments and other supplies to surgeons and surgeons' assistants, hold retractors, cut sutures, and help count sponges, needles, supplies, and instruments.
Reading this score
computedAt 12.6% of weighted task load, Surgical Technologists sits at the 20th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 77.5% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 18 tasks it averages 2.25 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Schedule surgical procedures for patients, at 83.3%. The least is Transport patients to and from the operating room, at 0.0%. A gap of 83.3% 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 less exposed than the median of 18.5% across the group's 89 roles, with 72 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 18 tasks, 5 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 13 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
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 | 1.11 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.25 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.86 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.89 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.39 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.03 | 0-3 |
Task by task
18 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schedule surgical procedures for patients. | 83.3% | 16.7% | 0.0% | 4.79 | exposed |
| Order surgical supplies. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 4.55 | exposed |
| Maintain files and records of surgical procedures. | 53.3% | 46.7% | 0.0% | 4.43 | exposed |
| Count sponges, needles, and instruments before and after operation. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.98 | exposed |
| Maintain supply of fluids, such as plasma, saline, blood, or glucose, for use during operations. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.43 | exposed |
| Monitor and continually assess operating room conditions, including patient and surgical team needs. | 12.5% | 25.0% | 62.5% | 4.74 | untouched |
| Clean and restock operating room, gathering and placing equipment and supplies and arranging instruments according to instructions, such as a preference card. | 12.5% | 12.5% | 75.0% | 4.64 | untouched |
| Prepare, care for, and dispose of tissue specimens taken for laboratory analysis. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.76 | untouched |
| Observe patients' vital signs to assess physical condition. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.38 | untouched |
| Operate, assemble, adjust, or monitor sterilizers, lights, suction machines, or diagnostic equipment to ensure proper operation. | 2.9% | 9.6% | 87.5% | 4.46 | untouched |
| Maintain a proper sterile field during surgical procedures. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 5.00 | untouched |
| Hand instruments and supplies to surgeons and surgeons' assistants, hold retractors and cut sutures, and perform other tasks as directed by surgeon during operation. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.92 | untouched |
| Scrub arms and hands and assist the surgical team to scrub and put on gloves, masks, and surgical clothing. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.91 | untouched |
| Wash and sterilize equipment, using germicides and sterilizers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.90 | untouched |
| Prepare patients for surgery, including positioning patients on the operating table and covering them with sterile surgical drapes to prevent exposure. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.85 | untouched |
| Prepare dressings or bandages and apply or assist with their application following surgery. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.73 | untouched |
| Provide technical assistance to surgeons, surgical nurses, or anesthesiologists. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Transport patients to and from the operating room. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.34 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
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.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.