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Occupation · 2026 assessment

Laboratory Technician

A Laboratory Technician frames research questions, obtains and validates evidence and is accountable for reproducible, sound scientific conclusions. The assessment separates automation of individual tasks from accountability for the professional outcome.

Moderate risk level Search jobs ↗
How risk may change

A forecast estimate, not a guaranteed scenario.

57%2026
60%2028
64%2030
70%2035

Which tasks are exposed

Risk applies to individual tasks—not to a person or an entire occupation.

TaskRisk
reviewing scientific literature75%
forming a hypothesis70%
designing the study66%
collecting samples or data61%
performing measurements55%
statistical analysis45%
interpreting results34%
preparing publication26%

Task map

AI replaces ↔ AI augments

Each task is positioned by AI capability and the degree of human involvement still required.

  1. 1reviewing scientific literatureAI 75% · human 51%
  2. 2forming a hypothesisAI 70% · human 54%
  3. 3designing the studyAI 66% · human 60%
  4. 4collecting samples or dataAI 61% · human 65%
  5. 5performing measurementsAI 55% · human 67%
  6. 6statistical analysisAI 45% · human 66%
  7. 7interpreting resultsAI 34% · human 65%
  8. 8preparing publicationAI 26% · human 68%

Why technology can change this work

  • digital tools reduce preparation and control time
  • full automation is constrained by variable real-world conditions
  • many cases still require professional judgement
  • the main inputs and outputs already exist digitally

What protects the occupation

  • framing a testable question
  • interpreting ambiguous evidence
  • scientific accountability

United States · before tax

Average pay and outlook

Estimated nominal monthly pay. The scenario reflects sector, demand and task resilience; it is not a guarantee of income.

2026$7 200per month
2035$9 750scenario estimate
2026: $7 20020262027: $7 45020272028: $7 70020282029: $7 95020292030: $8 25020302031: $8 50020312032: $8 80020322033: $9 10020332034: $9 40020342035: $9 7502035
Find jobs ↗The partner link may contain referral parameters. Data benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ↗

Practical next step

Where to move next

Do not restart from zero: carry your experience forward and add scarce skills.

Materials Discovery Specialist

Emerging role
New role risk13%
DemandHighDifficultyLowTime3–6 monthsSkill fit89%

Climate Risk Modeler

Emerging role
New role risk16%
DemandHighDifficultyLowTime3–6 monthsSkill fit87%

Environmental Digital Twin Specialist

Emerging role
New role risk14%
DemandHighDifficultyLowTime3–6 monthsSkill fit85%

AI Evaluation Engineer

Emerging role
New role risk16%
DemandHighDifficultyMediumTime6–12 monthsSkill fit66%

Bioinformatics Pipeline Engineer

Emerging role
New role risk13%
DemandHighDifficultyLowTime3–6 monthsSkill fit81%

Synthetic Biology Process Engineer

Emerging role
New role risk14%
DemandHighDifficultyLowTime3–6 monthsSkill fit81%

Job search and transitions

Find work with a lower risk index

Compare adjacent paths and open a current search for the selected occupation.

Environmental Digital Twin Specialist

Skill fit 85% · risk 14%

Search jobs ↗

Skills you already have

  • research methodology
  • laboratory or field methods
  • statistics
  • critical thinking
  • scientific writing
  • reproducibility

Skills to build

  • computational methods
  • experiment automation
  • open data
  • AI-hypothesis verification
  • scientific programming
  • research-data management
CurrentLaboratory Technician · 57%
→
Keepresearch methodology · laboratory or field methods · statistics
→
Addcomputational methods · experiment automation · open data

Sources and update

Updated: 2026-09-26 · Assessment confidence: Medium

International Labour Organization · 2025Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure

Nearly 30,000 tasks; a global assessment of GenAI exposure across detailed occupational groups.

World Economic Forum · 2025The Future of Jobs Report 2025

A survey of more than 1,000 employers representing over 14 million workers across 55 economies.

O*NET Resource Center · 2026O*NET Database

Occupational, task, skill and work-context structure.