Job Check
Forensic Science Technicians
Collect, identify, classify, and analyze physical evidence related to criminal investigations. Perform tests on weapons or substances, such as fiber, hair, and tissue to determine significance to investigation. May testify as expert witnesses on evidence or crime laboratory techniques. May serve as specialists in area of expertise, such as ballistics, fingerprinting, handwriting, or biochemistry.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Collect evidence from crime scenes, storing it in conditions that preserve its integrity.Mostly human for now
- 02Keep records and prepare reports detailing findings, investigative methods, and laboratory techniques.AI could speed this up a lot
- 03Use photographic or video equipment to document evidence or crime scenes.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 04Testify in court about investigative or analytical methods or findings.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 05Use chemicals or other substances to examine latent fingerprint evidence and compare developed prints to those of known persons in databases.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Measure and sketch crime scenes to document evidence.No rating yet
- 07Visit morgues, examine scenes of crimes, or contact other sources to obtain evidence or information to be used in investigations.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 08Train new technicians or other personnel on forensic science techniques.Mostly human for now
- 09Operate and maintain laboratory equipment and apparatus.Mostly human for now
- 10Collect impressions of dust from surfaces to obtain and identify fingerprints.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
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 63% 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 62% 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.
- Collect evidence from crime scenes, storing it in conditions that preserve its integrity.
- Train new technicians or other personnel on forensic science techniques.
- Operate and maintain laboratory equipment and apparatus.