Job Check
Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians
Cut, grind, and polish eyeglasses, contact lenses, or other precision optical elements. Assemble and mount lenses into frames or process other optical elements. Includes precision lens polishers or grinders, centerer-edgers, and lens mounters.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Mount and secure lens blanks or optical lenses in holding tools or chucks of cutting, polishing, grinding, or coating machines.Mostly human for now
- 02Inspect lens blanks to detect flaws, verify smoothness of surface, and ensure thickness of coating on lenses.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 03Set up machines to polish, bevel, edge, or grind lenses, flats, blanks, or other precision optical elements.Mostly human for now
- 04Inspect, weigh, and measure mounted or unmounted lenses after completion to verify alignment and conformance to specifications, using precision instruments.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 05Shape lenses appropriately so that they can be inserted into frames.Mostly human for now
- 06Clean finished lenses and eyeglasses, using cloths and solvents.Mostly human for now
- 07Mount, secure, and align finished lenses in frames or optical assemblies, using precision hand tools.Mostly human for now
- 08Examine prescriptions, work orders, or broken or used eyeglasses to determine specifications for lenses, contact lenses, or other optical elements.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 09Adjust lenses and frames to correct alignment.Mostly human for now
- 10Select lens blanks, molds, tools, and polishing or grinding wheels, according to production specifications.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 lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
9%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 15% 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 75% 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.
- Mount and secure lens blanks or optical lenses in holding tools or chucks of cutting, polishing, grinding, or coating machines.
- Set up machines to polish, bevel, edge, or grind lenses, flats, blanks, or other precision optical elements.
- Shape lenses appropriately so that they can be inserted into frames.