Job Check
Pharmacy Technicians
Prepare medications under the direction of a pharmacist. May measure, mix, count out, label, and record amounts and dosages of medications according to prescription orders.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Receive written prescription or refill requests and verify that information is complete and accurate.AI could speed this up a lot
- 02Enter prescription information into computer databases.AI could speed this up a lot
- 03Establish or maintain patient profiles, including lists of medications taken by individual patients.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 04Maintain proper storage and security conditions for drugs.Mostly human for now
- 05Receive and store incoming supplies, verify quantities against invoices, check for outdated medications in current inventory, and inform supervisors of stock needs and shortages.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Answer telephones, responding to questions or requests.People already use AI for this at work
- 07Assist customers by answering simple questions, locating items, or referring them to the pharmacist for medication information.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 08Operate cash registers to accept payment from customers.Mostly human for now
- 09Price and file prescriptions that have been filled.AI could speed this up a lot
- 10Mix pharmaceutical preparations, according to written prescriptions.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 loss7%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
43%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 70% 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.
- Maintain proper storage and security conditions for drugs.
- Operate cash registers to accept payment from customers.
- Mix pharmaceutical preparations, according to written prescriptions.