Explore safer careers (2)

Lower estimated automation risk

Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary
10% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Higher growth More jobs
5.3 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Uses veterinary medical expertise to teach anatomy, diagnosis, treatment, and clinical skills.

Epidemiologists
9% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Higher growth
6 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Transfers zoonotic disease, surveillance, outbreak investigation, population health, and data analysis.

Alternative careers

Related career paths that build on similar skills and experience

Clinical Research Coordinators
23% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better More jobs
View career
Why it fits

Applies protocols, animal or clinical studies, records, compliance, and safety follow-up.

Microbiologists
13% automation risk | Minimal Risk
2.5 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Fits vets with lab or infectious-disease experience using pathogens, diagnostics, and biosafety.

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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
8.8/10
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

15% (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.

Working directly with the public

Very 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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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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Active learning

Very 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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Assisting and caring for others

Quite 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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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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Show 3 more strengths

Originality

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with novel ideas and creative solutions when there isn’t an obvious playbook to follow.
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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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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 1,406 votes

21% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 15% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Veterinarians 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 high paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Veterinarians was $125,510 ($60 per hour).

The median annual wage for Veterinarians was 153.6% higher 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 'Veterinarians' job openings is expected to rise 9.6% 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

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 80,630 people employed as 'Veterinarians' within the United States.

This represents around 0.05% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 1 thousand people are employed as 'Veterinarians'.

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What people are saying (60)

Leave a comment
A young veterinarian
07 Jul 2024 20:51
We had evolution for millions of years. We domesticated most of the species of the world. Animals, for the most part, know how to respond to humans. They do not know how to respond to a non-living and non-human thing. We can use this to benefit us clearly, to help with the resolution of image exams and bloodwork tests, and to lessen the failure rate of quick diagnostic tests like ELISA and PCR. That's the purpose of AI. Without humans, the animals won't be safe in their visits. But alas - WHO WILL FEED THE AI? If vets don't exist anymore, we won't have research fields; we won't have any new information.

In conclusion, STOP BEING LAZY! STUDY, WORK, and use AI to help in minimal cases, not in every aspect of your life.
Destiny (No chance)
05 Mar 2021 15:11
I wanna be a veterinarian. However smart robots will be doesn't mean that they would know how to do surgery, how old a stray dog is, probably won't know how much to feed each one, and they can't bathe them because they're robots so I don't think there is a chance of that happening.
No
06 Sep 2023 12:30
Unfortunately, you might not think clearly if you're fixated on becoming a vet. Firstly, advanced robots excel in two main areas: They can access all the information on the internet that a human could never assimilate in a lifetime. Secondly, they have the capability to move with precision thanks to robotics. These are the two primary requirements in the veterinary field.

Moving on. When you mention determining the age of a stray dog, you don't necessarily need to know their exact age to provide treatment or make certain diagnoses. As for your comment about "probably not knowing how much to feed each one," AI and robotics are astonishingly accurate in this aspect. They'll likely always have more data and accuracy than we do. And the notion that "they can't bathe them because they are robots"? Well, we've had waterproof robots for quite some time now.

So, yes, it seems full automation is on the horizon!
alannah (No chance)
06 Nov 2020 15:15
there is no chance that robotics will take over a veterinarian's job like I said in my paragraph that I wrote for school that veterinarians are they need to be meticulous and just because the people that run the robotics they will not overrun the veterinarians because would you trust a robot with your animal do you think that you that your animal would be in good hands
jocelyn (No chance)
27 Mar 2020 02:19
how will a robot be able to feel whats wrong with animals
Andy
14 Apr 2026 20:49
How did they examine you last time you were at the docs? Same way
Parson Russell Terrier owner
11 Feb 2020 22:23
Pets need human interaction to lower anxiety and stave off depression.
blevin (No chance)
02 Dec 2019 02:55
you are just silly if you think that a robot can take care of my cat
avichal (Low)
26 Nov 2019 10:38
It requires understanding of an animal so no ai can do it
Leona (Low)
14 Nov 2019 14:09
Because pets could die and then no more vets
pp
12 Nov 2019 09:51
This job should not be taken by robots because humans have sympathy and can understand what the patient is feeling and can treat it better with more care
M (no chance hopefully)
11 Jun 2020 11:28
yes exactly :)
Mlepnos
07 Nov 2019 23:13
I am glad that we will still have a job to do
17hn11
26 Sep 2019 10:00
This is good because you wouldn't take the animals to the vets if they were robots and they wouldn't do the right thing with medicine and operations because they would do it wrong and the animals may die
Sam (Low)
12 Jul 2019 02:27
i think that people will not want to bring their animals into a place with ai or robots. they will want to talk to a person who they can connect with and feel safe with because they know they are experienced and love animals.
Jay Mengi (No chance)
23 Nov 2020 14:15
Veterinary nurses will be a thing and take over vaccination and other basic tasks. Vets would be doing more specialized appointments/surgery.
M (no chance hopefully)
11 Jun 2020 11:27
I hope not because I have always wanted to be a vet and what if something went wrong in surgery? D: Be so sad if a pet died because something was wrong with one of the robots!
robots should not replace veterinarians
28 Aug 2020 03:01
Yes, because robots with their metal hands could harm the animal
Auditormadness9
11 Dec 2023 22:17
who said it's gonna be a metal hand?
abdulaziz (Low)
07 Jul 2019 12:47
hopefully no
Foo (Highly likely)
30 Apr 2019 20:01
Just like with human doctors, the job can be divided into two parts: Diagnostics and Treatment. Diagnostics is really hard, because there is so much data and research material and you need to combine all of this to make the diagnosis. This is something that is actually really easy for AI to do and with much better accuracy than what humans can do. Even if human doctor is kept to make the final judgement, just having AI to prevent misdiagnosis will reduce the need of human work in both diagnosis and treatment as correct cure is found faster.
M (no chance hopefully)
11 Jun 2020 11:31
Quite right - but the robots would have all that tech built into them and the human vets and doctors could just use that tech without it having to be built into a complicated machine. I still hope not though because who doesn't like a job where you can interact with animals and help them - it just makes you feel great.
joe
27 Sep 2021 02:49
Still, vets would need to supervise
S (No chance)
05 Apr 2019 18:27
No one sane would risk a pricey robot getting bitten, scratched or kicked...
jojo8ballz (Low)
26 Dec 2024 18:41
Veterinarians require hand dexterity, problem solving, logic and a care and compassion for animals. It is uncertain wether robots will develop any of these, especially the last.
User (No chance)
10 Sep 2024 07:23
There is a risk of the robot getting it wrong and the pet dies
zoe (No chance)
11 Jul 2024 18:52
i don't think a robot will be able to handle the emotional part of the job dealing with the owners
Leave a reply about this occupation
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Job description

Diagnose, treat, or research diseases and injuries of animals. Includes veterinarians who conduct research and development, inspect livestock, or care for pets and companion animals.

O*NET-SOC code: 29-1131.00