Job Check
Chemical Technicians
Conduct chemical and physical laboratory tests to assist scientists in making qualitative and quantitative analyses of solids, liquids, and gaseous materials for research and development of new products or processes, quality control, maintenance of environmental standards, and other work involving experimental, theoretical, or practical application of chemistry and related sciences.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Conduct chemical or physical laboratory tests to assist scientists in making qualitative or quantitative analyses of solids, liquids, or gaseous materials.Mostly human for now
- 02Maintain, clean, or sterilize laboratory instruments or equipment.Mostly human for now
- 03Monitor product quality to ensure compliance with standards and specifications.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 04Set up and conduct chemical experiments, tests, and analyses, using techniques such as chromatography, spectroscopy, physical or chemical separation techniques, or microscopy.People already use AI for this at work
- 05Prepare chemical solutions for products or processes, following standardized formulas, or create experimental formulas.AI could speed this up a lot
- 06Compile and interpret results of tests and analyses.People already use AI for this at work
- 07Provide and maintain a safe work environment by participating in safety programs, committees, or teams and by conducting laboratory or plant safety audits.Mostly human for now
- 08Provide technical support or assistance to chemists or engineers.People already use AI for this at work
- 09Develop or conduct programs of sampling and analysis to maintain quality standards of raw materials, chemical intermediates, or products.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Train new employees on topics such as the proper operation of laboratory equipment.Mostly human for now
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job loss32%of this job’s work time goes to tasks that people already do with Claude at work, counting tasks where AI only helps as half (2026).Anthropic, 2026
39%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 46% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Above 87% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Conduct chemical or physical laboratory tests to assist scientists in making qualitative or quantitative analyses of solids, liquids, or gaseous materials.
- Maintain, clean, or sterilize laboratory instruments or equipment.
- Provide and maintain a safe work environment by participating in safety programs, committees, or teams and by conducting laboratory or plant safety audits.