Job Check
Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers
Feed, water, and examine pets and other nonfarm animals for signs of illness, disease, or injury in laboratories and animal hospitals and clinics. Clean and disinfect cages and work areas, and sterilize laboratory and surgical equipment. May provide routine postoperative care, administer medication orally or topically, or prepare samples for laboratory examination under the supervision of veterinary or laboratory animal technologists or technicians, veterinarians, or scientists.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Hold or restrain animals during veterinary procedures.Mostly human for now
- 02Monitor animals recovering from surgery and notify veterinarians of any unusual changes or symptoms.Mostly human for now
- 03Fill medication prescriptions.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 04Clean and maintain kennels, animal holding areas, examination or operating rooms, or animal loading or unloading facilities to control the spread of disease.Mostly human for now
- 05Examine animals to detect behavioral changes or clinical symptoms that could indicate illness or injury.Mostly human for now
- 06Perform routine laboratory tests or diagnostic tests, such as taking or developing x-rays.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 07Assist veterinarians in examining animals to determine the nature of illnesses or injuries.Mostly human for now
- 08Administer medication, immunizations, or blood plasma to animals as prescribed by veterinarians.Mostly human for now
- 09Collect laboratory specimens, such as blood, urine, or feces, for testing.Mostly human for now
- 10Perform office reception duties, such as scheduling appointments or helping customers.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 loss2%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
22%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 6% 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.
- Hold or restrain animals during veterinary procedures.
- Monitor animals recovering from surgery and notify veterinarians of any unusual changes or symptoms.
- Clean and maintain kennels, animal holding areas, examination or operating rooms, or animal loading or unloading facilities to control the spread of disease.