Medical Assistants

Low 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

30% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

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.

Assisting and caring for others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
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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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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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Working directly with the public

Quite important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
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Thinking creatively

Quite 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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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 110 votes

46% 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 30% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Medical Assistants 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

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Medical Assistants was $44,200 ($21 per hour).

The median annual wage for Medical Assistants was 10.7% lower than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Medical Assistants' job openings is expected to rise 12.5% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

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

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 793,460 people employed as 'Medical Assistants' within the United States.

This represents around 0.5% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 194 people are employed as 'Medical Assistants'.

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What people are saying (5)

Leave a comment
Pete johnson (Moderate)
07 Feb 2026 19:36
Due to the ai covering tasks , scheduling, charting this will free them up to focus on more on patient care but a business is a business and due to that it means less hours they will be needed
Breh
06 Sep 2020 07:36
It's honestly possible, vitals can be done automatically; appointments, patient care/education, and inquiries can be streamlined using automation, making it possible to hire less medical assistants. Although from what I hear, medical practices are slow in adapting new technology.
Shalin Dutt
08 Jun 2020 03:40
Firstly, medical assistants jobs can not be done by the robots. This involves in medical license and direct patient care. Robots are not designed to draw patients blood, check vital signs, do dressing changes, protect patients from fall and refilling their medication.
Milania (No chance)
25 May 2020 18:34
This occupation requires much more than taking vitals, it requires bedside manner, tact, empathy, patience things a robot can't do with a physician or a patient.
Mar
02 Apr 2023 23:03
Empathy, bedside manner, patience is all already done very easily with deep learning AI look at chat GPT.
Leave a reply about this occupation
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Job description

Perform administrative and certain clinical duties under the direction of a physician. Administrative duties may include scheduling appointments, maintaining medical records, billing, and coding information for insurance purposes. Clinical duties may include taking and recording vital signs and medical histories, preparing patients for examination, drawing blood, and administering medications as directed by physician.

O*NET-SOC code: 31-9092.00