AI Automation Index

Will AI Replace Epidemiologists?

Task-level automation exposure for Epidemiologists: 16 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.

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Developed & audited by Gini Loh

Automation Exposure

49% weighted task index

16 of 16 tasks scored

Median Salary

$87,220 / year

BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation

Employment Level

Low

12,090 people hold this job — size, not growth

Projected 2025–35

+18.7% employment change

800 openings a year · BLS line item

Pay by state

BLS OEWS publishes 43 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.

$48,380 – $115,890

Highest medians

Massachusetts $115,890

District of Columbia $112,370

California $110,760

New Jersey $109,760

Washington $108,240

Lowest medians

Puerto Rico $48,380

Mississippi $56,930

Idaho $66,280

Missouri $66,890

Arizona $67,260

State figures come from the 19-1041 row in the May 2025 state panel. States where the estimate was suppressed or too small to publish are absent.

What the score is made of

Each task is mapped to its work activities, scored for AI automation potential, and weighted by how important those activities are to the job. These are the components.

Automation potential 49%

Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.

Physical work 0%

Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.

Judgment & influence 66%

Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.

Routine administration 25%

Share in documenting, recording, and administrative activities.

Rewritten by O*NET 0%

Share of weighted tasks O*NET rewrote in a recent update. Reported, not folded into the score.

Consequence of error 0/100 Low

O*NET's own rating of how serious an uncorrectable mistake would be here — respondents, not us. Deliberately not in the index: the score measures what AI can do with the task content, and multiplying it by stakes would be our judgment dressed as data.

Constituent Task Mix

16 tasks for this occupation, weighted by work-activity importance. Shares below are of total task weight, not task count.

High exposure (≥ 60% of the task is automatable) 20%

3 tasks

Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 66%

11 tasks

Low exposure (below 35%) 14%

2 tasks

How would you survive?

Move your week away from the high-exposure tasks and toward the ones that need judgment. The simulator recalculates the index as you shift the mix.

Simulate Upskilling →

Emerging & rewritten tasks

Tasks O*NET added or rewrote for this occupation in its recent updates (05/2025 – 08/2026), with who proposed them. Additions are not in the scored task inventory — they are new work O*NET is still measuring, so they appear here and nowhere in the index. A Revision replaces a task that is scored, which is why only those move the "Rewritten by O*NET" share.

New 08/2023 · Occupational Expert

Teach epidemiology to students in public health programs.

Constituent Tasks

#15216 · Core · 64% automatable

Communicate research findings on various types of diseases to health practitioners, policy makers, and the public.

text generation — Reports drafted; presentations need human delivery

Prepare scientific or technical reports or presentations. Communicate with government agencies.

#5421 · Core · 28% automatable

Oversee public health programs, including statistical analysis, health care planning, surveillance systems, and public health improvement.

interpersonal — Directing healthcare programs carries clinical accountability

Direct medical science or healthcare programs.

#5422 · Core · 45% automatable

Investigate diseases or parasites to determine cause and risk factors, progress, life cycle, or mode of transmission.

data analysis — Literature and data aided; lab work human

Research diseases or parasites.

#15217 · Core · 40% automatable

Educate healthcare workers, patients, and the public about infectious and communicable diseases, including disease transmission and prevention.

interpersonal — Technical procedure training needs live demonstration and correction

Train personnel in technical or scientific procedures.

#15215 · Core · 55% automatable

Monitor and report incidents of infectious diseases to local and state health agencies.

text generation — Drafting agency communications aided; relationships human

Communicate with government agencies.

#5423 · Core · 39% automatable

Plan and direct studies to investigate human or animal disease, preventive methods, and treatments for disease.

decision support — Research planning needs domain expertise and feasibility

Plan biological research. Direct medical science or healthcare programs.

#5425 · Core · 55% automatable

Provide expertise in the design, management and evaluation of study protocols and health status questionnaires, sample selection, and analysis.

decision support — Methods drafted; methodological rigor human

Develop methods of social or economic research.

#23961 · Core · 55% automatable

Write articles for publication in professional journals.

text generation — AI drafts; original expertise and authorship are human

Write articles, books or other original materials in area of expertise.

#5429 · Core · 72% automatable

Identify and analyze public health issues related to foodborne parasitic diseases and their impact on public policies, scientific studies, or surveys.

data analysis — Statistical analysis of health data; clinician verifies

Analyze health-related data.

#23962 · Core · 55% automatable

Write grant applications to fund epidemiologic research.

text generation — Draft grant text; human owns strategy and budget

Write grant proposals. Prepare proposals or grant applications to obtain project funding.

#5424 · Core · 44% automatable

Plan, administer and evaluate health safety standards and programs to improve public health, conferring with health department, industry personnel, physicians, and others.

text generation — AI drafts standards; committee consensus and authority human

Establish standards for products, processes, or procedures. Direct medical science or healthcare programs.

#5426 · Core · 63% automatable

Conduct research to develop methodologies, instrumentation, and procedures for medical application, analyzing data and presenting findings.

information retrieval — AI researches and synthesizes; human judges relevance

Research diseases or parasites. Analyze health-related data. Research topics in area of expertise. Present research results to others.

#5427 · Core · 50% automatable

Consult with and advise physicians, educators, researchers, government health officials and others regarding medical applications of sciences, such as physics, biology, and chemistry.

decision support — Healthcare advice carries liability; human owns it

Advise others on healthcare matters.

#5428 · Core · 32% automatable

Supervise professional, technical, and clerical personnel.

interpersonal — Technical supervision requires judgment and accountability

Supervise scientific or technical personnel.

#5430 · Supplemental · 55% automatable

Teach principles of medicine and medical and laboratory procedures to physicians, residents, students, and technicians.

text generation — Science instruction content AI-assisted; delivery human

Instruct college students in physical or life sciences.

#5432 · Supplemental · 35% automatable

Prepare and analyze samples to study effects of drugs, gases, pesticides, or microorganisms on cell structure and tissue.

physical manipulation — Biological sample analysis needs wet-lab execution

Analyze biological samples.

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Community Sentiment

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Method

How this was scored

1. Tasks. O*NET task statements for this occupation, from a release whose newest record is dated 08/2026.
2. Work activities. Each task maps to 1–5 Detailed Work Activities; each activity belongs to one of 41 Generalized Work Activities that O*NET rates for importance (1–5) in this occupation.
3. Automation potential. Every work activity carries one score for how far current AI can perform it end-to-end. Tasks inherit the mean of their activities.
4. Weighting. Task weight = 0.35 + 0.65 × (importance − 1)/4, scaled by how often the task is performed and by 0.7 for Supplemental tasks. Importance is the task's own O*NET rating where it exists (18,369 of 18,838 tasks); the rest inherit their work activities' importance. The index is the weighted mean.

Check: across the 910 occupations where O*NET also rates how far machine speed sets the pace, this index moves opposite to it (Spearman ρ = -0.49). The more a job is paced by equipment, the less of its task content AI can address — the relationship you would expect if the scoring is working.

Sources · O*NET 31.0 (task records to 08/2026) · BLS OEWS May 2025 · BLS projections 2025-2035 · rubric v2.1 · tasks for O*NET, not a forecast

See the full method →

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