HealthcareO*NET: 29-2081.00
Will AI Replace Opticians, Dispensing?
Design, measure, fit, and adapt lenses and frames for client according to written optical prescription or specification. Assist client with inserting, removing, and caring for contact lenses. Assist client with selecting frames. Measure customer for size of eyeglasses and coordinate frames with facial and eye measurements and optical prescription. Prepare work order for optical laboratory containing instructions for grinding and mounting lenses in frames. Verify exactness of finished lens spectacles. Adjust frame and lens position to fit client. May shape or reshape frames. Includes contact lens opticians.
53out of 100
Medium Risk
AI Risk Score
53/100
Risk Level
Medium
Job Zone
3/5
Medium
Total Tasks Analyzed
21
🤖 What AI Can Do
- ▸Measure clients' bridge and eye size, temple length, vertex distance, pupillary distance, and optical centers of eyes, using measuring devices.
- ▸Verify that finished lenses are ground to specifications.
- ▸Maintain records of customer prescriptions, work orders, and payments.
- ▸Obtain a customer's previous record, or verify a prescription with the examining optometrist or ophthalmologist.
- ▸Perform administrative duties, such as tracking inventory and sales, submitting patient insurance information, and performing simple bookkeeping.
👤 What Requires Humans
- ▸Supervise the training of student opticians.
- ▸Repair damaged frames.
Task Breakdown
🤖AI Can Automate (5)
- Measure clients' bridge and eye size, temple length, vertex distance, pupillary distance, and optical centers of eyes, using measuring devices.
- Verify that finished lenses are ground to specifications.
- Maintain records of customer prescriptions, work orders, and payments.
- Obtain a customer's previous record, or verify a prescription with the examining optometrist or ophthalmologist.
- Perform administrative duties, such as tracking inventory and sales, submitting patient insurance information, and performing simple bookkeeping.
👤Requires Humans (2)
- Supervise the training of student opticians.
- Repair damaged frames.
⚡AI-Assisted (14)
- Evaluate prescriptions in conjunction with clients' vocational and avocational visual requirements.
- Recommend specific lenses, lens coatings, and frames to suit client needs.
- Assist clients in selecting frames according to style and color, and ensure that frames are coordinated with facial and eye measurements and optical prescriptions.
- Heat, shape, or bend plastic or metal frames to adjust eyeglasses to fit clients, using pliers and hands.
- Show customers how to insert, remove, and care for their contact lenses.
- Determine clients' current lens prescriptions, when necessary, using lensometers or lens analyzers and clients' eyeglasses.
- Prepare work orders and instructions for grinding lenses and fabricating eyeglasses.
- Sell goods such as contact lenses, spectacles, sunglasses, and goods related to eyes, in general.
Key Skills Analysis
Speaking
Importance: 4.00/5.00
Active Listening
Importance: 3.88/5.00
Reading ComprehensionAI-Vulnerable
Importance: 3.75/5.00
Critical ThinkingAI-Resistant
Importance: 3.50/5.00
Service OrientationAI-Resistant
Importance: 3.50/5.00
WritingAI-Vulnerable
Importance: 3.25/5.00
Social PerceptivenessAI-Resistant
Importance: 3.25/5.00
CoordinationAI-Resistant
Importance: 3.25/5.00
PersuasionAI-Resistant
Importance: 3.25/5.00
Active LearningAI-Resistant
Importance: 3.00/5.00
Monitoring
Importance: 3.00/5.00
Complex Problem SolvingAI-Resistant
Importance: 3.00/5.00
Judgment and Decision MakingAI-Resistant
Importance: 3.00/5.00
Time ManagementAI-Resistant
Importance: 3.00/5.00
MathematicsAI-Vulnerable
Importance: 2.88/5.00
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Frequently Asked Questions
Based on our analysis, Opticians, Dispensing have a medium risk of AI replacement with a score of 53/100. While some tasks can be assisted by AI, the core responsibilities require human judgment and skills.
Last updated: 2026-03-28· Data from O*NET 30.2 & Frey/Osborne automation research