Surgical Assistants
HealthcareAI exposure
- Data source: BLSPublished: 2026-08
Low· relative
LowFour relative bandsVery highGroup-level value
Scale, basis and source
Four relative bands (Low / Moderate / High / Very high)
831 detailed occupations in the BLS Employment Projections table. Assigned per National Employment Matrix (NEM) code, so occupations sharing a NEM code carry the same band
- Data source: AnthropicPublished: 2026-03
0.000
0.000Range of values carried here0.745Scale, basis and source
- Data source: ILOPublished: 2025
0.30
0.09Range of values carried here0.70Group-level value
Scale, basis and source
Generative AI exposure index, 0–1 as published
ISCO-08 unit group — every occupation sharing the code gets this value
Computed by this site, not published by the ILO: of the 1,012 occupations this site links to the ILO dataset, 67% score at or above this value.
What kind of figure this source publishes
The BLS category is a relative rank, not an absolute level, and it is not a first-hand measurement: it groups an occupation's percentile ranks across several published studies into four bands. It is not an employment or wage forecast, not a probability of adoption, and it does not separate automation from augmentation.
Task-level exposure
Exposed tasks only| Task | APIRaw / share % |
|---|---|
Verify the identity of patient or operative site.29-9093 | 0.0100100.0 |
| Not observed on any surface — 27 task(s) — These tasks have no row in the source for this release. The 0 in the share row is a display-stage composition ratio; absence is what the — in the raw row states. | |
Adjust and maintain operating room temperature, humidity, or lighting, according to surgeon's specifications. | —0 |
Apply sutures, staples, clips, or other materials to close skin, facia, or subcutaneous wound layers. | —0 |
Assess skin integrity or other body conditions upon completion of the procedure to determine if damage has occurred from body positioning. | —0 |
Assist in the insertion, positioning, or suturing of closed-wound drainage systems. | —0 |
Assist members of surgical team with gowning or gloving. | —0 |
Clamp, ligate, or cauterize blood vessels to control bleeding during surgical entry, using hemostatic clamps, suture ligatures, or electrocautery equipment. | —0 |
Coordinate or participate in the positioning of patients, using body stabilizing equipment or protective padding to provide appropriate exposure for the procedure or to protect against nerve damage or circulation impairment. | —0 |
Coordinate with anesthesia personnel to maintain patient temperature. | —0 |
Discuss with surgeon the nature of the surgical procedure, including operative consent, methods of operative exposure, diagnostic or laboratory data, or patient-advanced directives or other needs. | —0 |
Maintain an unobstructed operative field, using surgical retractors, sponges, or suctioning and irrigating equipment. | —0 |
Monitor and maintain aseptic technique throughout procedures. | —0 |
Monitor patient intra-operative status, including patient position, vital signs, or volume and color of blood. | —0 |
Prepare and apply sterile wound dressings. | —0 |
Assist in applying casts, splints, braces, or similar devices. | —0 |
Assist with patient resuscitation during cardiac arrest or other life-threatening events. | —0 |
Cover patients with surgical drapes to create and maintain a sterile operative field. | —0 |
Determine availability of necessary equipment or supplies for operative procedures. | —0 |
Gather, arrange, or assemble instruments or supplies. | —0 |
Obtain or inspect sterile or non-sterile surgical equipment, instruments, or supplies. | —0 |
Operate sterilizing devices. | —0 |
Pass instruments or supplies to surgeon during procedure. | —0 |
Transport patients to operating room. | —0 |
Incise tissue layers in lower extremities to harvest veins. | —0 |
Postoperatively inject a subcutaneous local anesthetic agent to reduce pain. | —0 |
Assist in volume replacement or autotransfusion techniques. | —0 |
Insert or remove urinary bladder catheters. | —0 |
Remove patient hair or disinfect incision sites to prepare patient for surgery. | —0 |
Values in this tab are predicted labels, not observations. Eloundou et al. (2023) published two rating regimes — human raters and GPT-4 — and the β shown here is derived from the GPT-4 rater basis alone; the same task can take a different value under the other regime. The unit and the meaning differ from the observed shares (%) in the other tabs, so do not place them on the same axis.
| Task | βE1 + 0.5 × E2 |
|---|---|
Assess skin integrity or other body conditions upon completion of the procedure to determine if damage has occurred from body positioning.O*NET Task ID 19290 | 0.5 |
Verify the identity of patient or operative site.O*NET Task ID 19315 | 0.5 |
Adjust and maintain operating room temperature, humidity, or lighting, according to surgeon's specifications.O*NET Task ID 19288 | 0.0 |
Apply sutures, staples, clips, or other materials to close skin, facia, or subcutaneous wound layers.O*NET Task ID 19289 | 0.0 |
Assist in the insertion, positioning, or suturing of closed-wound drainage systems.O*NET Task ID 19291 | 0.0 |
Assist members of surgical team with gowning or gloving.O*NET Task ID 19292 | 0.0 |
Clamp, ligate, or cauterize blood vessels to control bleeding during surgical entry, using hemostatic clamps, suture ligatures, or electrocautery equipment.O*NET Task ID 19293 | 0.0 |
Coordinate or participate in the positioning of patients, using body stabilizing equipment or protective padding to provide appropriate exposure for the procedure or to protect against nerve damage or circulation impairment.O*NET Task ID 19294 | 0.0 |
Coordinate with anesthesia personnel to maintain patient temperature.O*NET Task ID 19295 | 0.0 |
Discuss with surgeon the nature of the surgical procedure, including operative consent, methods of operative exposure, diagnostic or laboratory data, or patient-advanced directives or other needs.O*NET Task ID 19296 | 0.0 |
Incise tissue layers in lower extremities to harvest veins.O*NET Task ID 19297 | 0.0 |
Maintain an unobstructed operative field, using surgical retractors, sponges, or suctioning and irrigating equipment.O*NET Task ID 19298 | 0.0 |
Monitor and maintain aseptic technique throughout procedures.O*NET Task ID 19299 | 0.0 |
Monitor patient intra-operative status, including patient position, vital signs, or volume and color of blood.O*NET Task ID 19300 | 0.0 |
Postoperatively inject a subcutaneous local anesthetic agent to reduce pain.O*NET Task ID 19301 | 0.0 |
Prepare and apply sterile wound dressings.O*NET Task ID 19302 | 0.0 |
Assist in applying casts, splints, braces, or similar devices.O*NET Task ID 19303 | 0.0 |
Assist in volume replacement or autotransfusion techniques.O*NET Task ID 19304 | 0.0 |
Assist with patient resuscitation during cardiac arrest or other life-threatening events.O*NET Task ID 19305 | 0.0 |
Cover patients with surgical drapes to create and maintain a sterile operative field.O*NET Task ID 19306 | 0.0 |
Determine availability of necessary equipment or supplies for operative procedures.O*NET Task ID 19307 | 0.0 |
Gather, arrange, or assemble instruments or supplies.O*NET Task ID 19308 | 0.0 |
Insert or remove urinary bladder catheters.O*NET Task ID 19309 | 0.0 |
Obtain or inspect sterile or non-sterile surgical equipment, instruments, or supplies.O*NET Task ID 19310 | 0.0 |
Operate sterilizing devices.O*NET Task ID 19311 | 0.0 |
Pass instruments or supplies to surgeon during procedure.O*NET Task ID 19312 | 0.0 |
Remove patient hair or disinfect incision sites to prepare patient for surgery.O*NET Task ID 19313 | 0.0 |
Transport patients to operating room.O*NET Task ID 19314 | 0.0 |
β = E1 + 0.5 × E2 · E1 = tasks where direct LLM access alone cuts time by at least 50%, E2 = tasks where software built on top of an LLM cuts time by at least 50%. Values take only 0 / 0.5 / 1.0.
Data sources & licenses — O*NET®, Anthropic Economic Index, Eloundou et al. (2023): see full notices on the Credits page