Career Explorer Healthcare (clinical)
Grows with AI
Pharmacy technicians
Prepare medications under the direction of a pharmacist. May measure, mix, count out, label, and record amounts and dosages of medications according to prescription orders.
In the middle of the pack: more resilient than 56% 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 +6.4% by 2035, faster than average. The work leans on emotional intelligence and ethical judgement.
AI can help with many of the tasks, and demand is still growing. Being fluent with AI is the edge here.
- Median pay (2025)
- $45,750
- Job growth to 2035
- +6.4%
- Openings a year
- 44,700
- People doing it (2025)
- 471,000
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then moderate on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Perform administrative or clerical activities
- Prepare mixtures or solutions
- Process digital or online data
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Replenish inventories of materials, equipment, or products
- Maintain health or medical records
- Clean medical equipment or facilities
What the work looks like
- Receive written prescription or refill requests and verify that information is complete and accurate.
- Enter prescription information into computer databases.
- Establish or maintain patient profiles, including lists of medications taken by individual patients.
- Compute charges for medication or equipment dispensed to hospital patients and enter data in computer.
- Maintain proper storage and security conditions for drugs.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- More of these jobs, as pharmacy technicians expand their role, taking on some of the tasks performed by pharmacists. This will be partially offset by lower demand due to the consolidation of the retail pharmacy industry and patient use of mail-order/online pharmacies.
- More of these jobs, as pharmacy technicians expand their role, taking on some of the tasks performed by pharmacists. The loosening of pharmacist-to-technician ratios across states is likely to support this trend further.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
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Also known as: Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT), Chemotherapy Pharmacy Technician (Chemo Pharmacy Technician), OR Pharmacy Tech (Operating Room Pharmacy Tech), RPhT (Registered Pharmacy Technician), Accredited Pharmacy Technician, Compounding Technician.
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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.