Job Check
Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists
Conduct research dealing with the understanding of human diseases and the improvement of human health. Engage in clinical investigation, research and development, or other related activities.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Follow strict safety procedures when handling toxic materials to avoid contamination.Mostly human for now
- 02Evaluate effects of drugs, gases, pesticides, parasites, and microorganisms at various levels.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 03Plan and direct studies to investigate human or animal disease, preventive methods, and treatments for disease.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 04Prepare and analyze organ, tissue, and cell samples to identify toxicity, bacteria, or microorganisms or to study cell structure.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 05Conduct research to develop methodologies, instrumentation, and procedures for medical application, analyzing data and presenting findings to the scientific audience and general public.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Teach principles of medicine and medical and laboratory procedures to physicians, residents, students, and technicians.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 07Write and publish articles in scientific journals.AI could speed this up a lot
- 08Write applications for research grants.AI could speed this up a lot
- 09Standardize drug dosages, methods of immunization, and procedures for manufacture of drugs and medicinal compounds.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Study animal and human health and physiological processes.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 loss4%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
52%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 65% 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 61% 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.
- Follow strict safety procedures when handling toxic materials to avoid contamination.