Career Explorer Healthcare (clinical)
Grows with AI
Pharmacists
Dispense drugs prescribed by physicians and other health practitioners and provide information to patients about medications and their use. May advise physicians and other health practitioners on the selection, dosage, interactions, and side effects of medications.
In the middle of the pack: more resilient than 42% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by +5.2% by 2035, faster than average. The work leans on ethical judgement and emotional intelligence.
AI can help with many of the tasks, and demand is still growing. Being fluent with AI is the edge here.
- Median pay (2025)
- $140,910
- Job growth to 2035
- +5.2%
- Openings a year
- 12,500
- People doing it (2025)
- 325,000
- Usual route in
- Doctorate or professional degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Explain medical information to patients or family members
- Advise patients or clients on medical issues
- Prepare mixtures or solutions
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Maintain health or medical records
- Replenish inventories of materials, equipment, or products
- Confer with healthcare or other professionals about patient care
What the work looks like
- Review prescriptions to assure accuracy, to ascertain the needed ingredients, and to evaluate their suitability.
- Collaborate with other health care professionals to plan, monitor, review, or evaluate the quality or effectiveness of drugs or drug regimens, providing advice on drug applications or characteristics.
- Work in hospitals or clinics or for Health Management Organizations (HMOs), dispensing prescriptions, serving as a medical team consultant, or specializing in specific drug therapy areas, such as oncology or nuclear pharmacotherapy.
- Provide information and advice regarding drug interactions, side effects, dosage, and proper medication storage.
- Provide specialized services to help patients manage conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, smoking cessation, or high blood pressure.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- More of these jobs, as pharmacists’ roles in health care delivery expand and providers increasingly integrate pharmacists into team-based models of care. The growth of the specialty drug market will support this trend further within hospitals.
- Fewer of these jobs, as consolidation of the retail pharmacy industry and patient use of mail-order/online pharmacies dampen demand for pharmacists in retail settings.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- DermatologistsHuman edge, growing, Index 78, +6.8%
- Family medicine physiciansChanging shape, Index 49, +3.3%
- Physician assistantsHuman edge, growing, Index 97, +21.1%
- Nurse practitionersGrows with AI, Index 88, +41.0%
Also known as: Clinical Pharmacist, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist (CPS), Hospital Pharmacist, Registered Pharmacist, Community Pharmacist, Inpatient Pharmacist, Pharm D (Pharmacy Doctor), Pharmacy Informaticist.
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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.