Job Check
Surgical Technologists
Assist in operations, under the supervision of surgeons, registered nurses, or other surgical personnel. May help set up operating room, prepare and transport patients for surgery, adjust lights and equipment, pass instruments and other supplies to surgeons and surgeons' assistants, hold retractors, cut sutures, and help count sponges, needles, supplies, and instruments.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Maintain a proper sterile field during surgical procedures.Mostly human for now
- 02Count sponges, needles, and instruments before and after operation.Mostly human for now
- 03Hand instruments and supplies to surgeons and surgeons' assistants, hold retractors and cut sutures, and perform other tasks as directed by surgeon during operation.Mostly human for now
- 04Scrub arms and hands and assist the surgical team to scrub and put on gloves, masks, and surgical clothing.Mostly human for now
- 05Wash and sterilize equipment, using germicides and sterilizers.Mostly human for now
- 06Prepare patients for surgery, including positioning patients on the operating table and covering them with sterile surgical drapes to prevent exposure.Mostly human for now
- 07Prepare, care for, and dispose of tissue specimens taken for laboratory analysis.Mostly human for now
- 08Monitor and continually assess operating room conditions, including patient and surgical team needs.Mostly human for now
- 09Prepare dressings or bandages and apply or assist with their application following surgery.Mostly human for now
- 10Clean and restock operating room, gathering and placing equipment and supplies and arranging instruments according to instructions, such as a preference card.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
7%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 4% 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 48% 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 a proper sterile field during surgical procedures.
- Count sponges, needles, and instruments before and after operation.
- Hand instruments and supplies to surgeons and surgeons' assistants, hold retractors and cut sutures, and perform other tasks as directed by surgeon during operation.