Bioinformatics Scientists

Minimal Risk
Low High

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
5.6/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

19% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Thinking creatively

Very important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Very important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Show 3 more strengths

Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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Education and training expertise

Quite important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
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What users think

Based on 142 votes

47% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, employees may be able to find reassurance in the automated risk level we have generated, which shows 19% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Bioinformatics Scientists will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Biological Scientists, All Other was $93,330 ($45 per hour).

The median annual wage for Biological Scientists, All Other was 88.5% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Biological Scientists, All Other' job openings is expected to rise 1.2% by 2034

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 59,710 people employed as 'Biological Scientists, All Other' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 2 thousand people are employed as 'Biological Scientists, All Other'.

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What people are saying (5)

Leave a comment
tunabeansboii (Moderate)
01 Jun 2026 08:26
It requires a lot of technical skill such as coding, maths etc, which is something straightformward adn easy for ai to takeover. However it's very much up to debate
Giovanni Deiana (Highly likely)
28 Aug 2025 19:10
I work in the field and most of m'y collègues heavily rely on AI to write their code and sometimes also to create the data analysis pipeline
Justin (No chance)
21 Sep 2024 19:47
Figuring out biology is an impossible task currently, AI would be welcomed with open arms to figure out the secrets of nature.
Shashwat Kumar (Moderate)
09 Aug 2023 09:04
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to replace bioinformatics scientists in a number of ways. Here are some logical reasons:

1) AI can process and analyze large amounts of data much faster than humans can. This is essential in bioinformatics, where scientists are often dealing with terabytes or petabytes of data. AI can help to identify patterns and correlations in this data that would be impossible for humans to find.

2)AI can be programmed to perform repetitive tasks with high accuracy. This is another important skill for bioinformatics scientists, who often spend a lot of time performing tasks such as data cleaning and analysis. AI can automate these tasks, freeing up scientists to focus on more creative and strategic work.

3)AI can be used to generate hypotheses and make predictions. This is a critical skill for bioinformatics scientists, who are constantly trying to understand the complex relationships between biological molecules. AI can be used to analyze data and identify patterns that may suggest new hypotheses or predictions.

4)AI can be used to design and conduct experiments. This is a more advanced skill, but it is one that AI is becoming increasingly capable of. AI can be used to design experiments that are more efficient and effective than those that could be designed by humans.
Helena (Moderate)
15 Oct 2021 06:18
Analysis pipelines can be coded by AIs. Even invented. Technologies to profile molecules in cells could also be invented by AIs

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Job description

Conduct research using bioinformatics theory and methods in areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology, computational biology, proteomics, computer information science, biology and medical informatics. May design databases and develop algorithms for processing and analyzing genomic information, or other biological information.

O*NET-SOC code: 19-1029.01