Job Check
Dermatologists
Diagnose and treat diseases relating to the skin, hair, and nails. May perform both medical and dermatological surgery functions.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Conduct complete skin examinations.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 02Diagnose and treat pigmented lesions such as common acquired nevi, congenital nevi, dysplastic nevi, Spitz nevi, blue nevi, or melanoma.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 03Perform incisional biopsies to diagnose melanoma.Mostly human for now
- 04Perform skin surgery to improve appearance, make early diagnoses, or control diseases such as skin cancer.Mostly human for now
- 05Counsel patients on topics such as the need for annual dermatologic screenings, sun protection, skin cancer awareness, or skin and lymph node self-examinations.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Diagnose and treat skin conditions such as acne, dandruff, athlete's foot, moles, psoriasis, or skin cancer.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 07Record patients' health histories.People already use AI for this at work
- 08Recommend diagnostic tests based on patients' histories and physical examination findings.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 09Prescribe hormonal agents or topical treatments such as contraceptives, spironolactone, antiandrogens, oral corticosteroids, retinoids, benzoyl peroxide, or antibiotics.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Conduct or order diagnostic tests such as chest radiographs (x-rays), microbiologic tests, or endocrinologic tests.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
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 lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
38%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 35% 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
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.
- Perform incisional biopsies to diagnose melanoma.
- Perform skin surgery to improve appearance, make early diagnoses, or control diseases such as skin cancer.