Career Explorer Healthcare (clinical)
Human edge, growing
Optometrists
Diagnose, manage, and treat conditions and diseases of the human eye and visual system. Examine eyes and visual system, diagnose problems or impairments, prescribe corrective lenses, and provide treatment. May prescribe therapeutic drugs to treat specific eye conditions.
Among the most resilient careers: more resilient than 89% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it low), and US jobs are projected to change by +9.5% by 2035, faster than average. The work leans on emotional intelligence and ethical judgement.
AI struggles with much of this work, and US employers are expected to hire more people into it than average.
- Median pay (2025)
- $136,570
- Job growth to 2035
- +9.5%
- Openings a year
- 2,000
- People doing it (2025)
- 45,100
- Usual route in
- Doctorate or professional degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Analyze health or medical data
- Assist others to access additional services or resources
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Prescribe medical treatments or devices
- Treat injuries, illnesses, or diseases
- Administer diagnostic tests to assess patient health
What the work looks like
- Examine eyes, using observation, instruments, and pharmaceutical agents, to determine visual acuity and perception, focus, and coordination and to diagnose diseases and other abnormalities, such as glaucoma or color blindness.
- Analyze test results and develop a treatment plan.
- Prescribe, supply, fit and adjust eyeglasses, contact lenses, and other vision aids.
- Prescribe medications to treat eye diseases if state laws permit.
- Educate and counsel patients on contact lens care, visual hygiene, lighting arrangements, and safety factors.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- More of these jobs, as the adoption of integrated eye care models shifts primary care responsibilities to optometrists, allowing ophthalmologists to focus on more complex cases and surgery. The expanding scope of practice of optometrists further supports this trend.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Nurse anesthetistsHuman edge, growing, Index 95, +9.7%
- Physician assistantsHuman edge, growing, Index 97, +21.1%
- Orthotists and prosthetistsHuman edge, growing, Index 96, +12.9%
- ProsthodontistsHuman edge, growing, Index 94, +5.8%
Also known as: Optometrist, Optometry Doctor (OD), Therapeutic Optometrist.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.