{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/life-physical-and-social-science-technicians-all-other/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Life, Physical, and Social Science Technicians, All Other",
    "soc_code": "19-4099",
    "category": "Science",
    "us_employment": 73910,
    "median_annual_wage": 62280
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 37,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 9,
    "embodiment": 13,
    "liability_shield": 4,
    "trust_premium": 4,
    "judgment_accountability": 7
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "At 9 the split is roughly even: mounting specimens, swapping columns on a chromatograph, re-seating a leaking fitting and hauling a sampling kit into the field are still hand work, but the run logs, unit conversions, calibration-curve math, control-chart plotting and the boilerplate 'results within spec' memo are the other half of your week and LIMS-plus-liquid-handler setups already do them, which is why this sits below the 14+ band held by trades that never touch a screen.",
    "embodiment": "13 reflects that a large share of these technicians work outside a controlled bench — surface-water and soil sampling, wildlife or vegetation plots, stack and ambient air monitoring, crop or greenhouse trials — where terrain, weather and uncooperative specimens defeat fixed automation; it is not higher because plenty in this catch-all spend their days at a fume hood or a bench instrument in a room with stable temperature and power.",
    "liability_shield": "4 is the ceiling for a role with no state licence and no personal signature: your data goes out under the PI's, lab director's, or certifying officer's name, and even in NELAP/ISO 17025 shops the accreditation attaches to the laboratory and its technical manager, not to you, so employer-specific training records are the only credential standing between you and replacement.",
    "trust_premium": "4 is set by who reads your output — an internal scientist, a QA reviewer, or a regulator receiving a data package — none of whom chose you personally or would follow you to another employer; the informal credit you earn with a PI for clean, defensible runs is real but it never becomes the thing being purchased.",
    "judgment_accountability": "7 acknowledges genuine discretion inside written limits — deciding a calibration has drifted enough to rerun, rejecting a sample for broken chain-of-custody or hold-time exceedance, judging a peak from baseline noise — but SOPs, method manuals and a supervising scientist define the boundaries, and the consequential call on whether a result is reported or a study conclusion drawn is escalated, not yours."
  },
  "rationale": "This catch-all covers technicians who prep samples, run and calibrate instruments, collect field data, and log results for scientists — the modal worker spends real hours with hands on equipment and specimens, which robotics and AI cannot yet take. But the screen half of the job — transcribing readings, spreadsheet calculations, chart generation, QC flagging, drafting summary reports — is already automatable, and lab automation platforms are eating routine pipetting and plate handling. There is no licensure and no client relationship to defend the role, so the surviving tier is the person who can troubleshoot a misbehaving instrument and vouch for whether a result is real.",
  "outlook": "Employment holds roughly flat but the job hollows out: fewer hours logging and reporting, more hours on instruments, sampling, and troubleshooting, with each technician supporting more scientists than today.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Task-mix shift: as automated liquid handlers and LIMS absorb routine pipetting, transcription and chart generation, the residual role concentrates in non-routine instrument troubleshooting, method transfer/validation, novel sample matrices, and chain-of-custody field collection. Recognisable signal: job postings for the same title shifting from 'data entry/sample prep' language to 'instrument qualification (IQ/OQ/PQ)', 'deviation investigation', 'method validation' — already visible in pharma QC and environmental lab ads.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "embodiment",
        "change": "Growth in the field-sampling and hazardous-matrix segments (EPA/state PFAS and lead-service-line sampling programs, well and stormwater monitoring, wildlife and soil collection) where sampling must be done on-site under unpredictable conditions with documented custody. If the occupation's center of mass moves toward field collection rather than benchtop prep, physical irreducibility rises.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "Accreditation bodies tightening the named-analyst requirement: TNI/NELAP and ISO/IEC 17025 already require an identified, competency-demonstrated analyst to sign data packages; an explicit clause requiring a named human technician to attest to any AI- or software-generated QC flag, integration, or result recalculation (analogous to FDA 21 CFR Part 11 electronic-signature and ALCOA+ data-integrity enforcement in warning letters) would harden this. Watch for FDA data-integrity guidance naming AI-assisted chromatographic peak reintegration.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Formalizing the technician as the owner of out-of-specification and deviation calls: an OOS investigation SOP, or a state environmental lab rule, that makes the named analyst — not an automated flag — responsible for rejecting a run, invalidating a batch, or declaring a result reportable. Forensic-lab reform after crime-lab scandals (e.g. Massachusetts drug-lab cases) pushed exactly this kind of individual analyst accountability.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 4
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Trust premium has no realistic route: buyers of lab and field data are institutions purchasing accredited numbers, not a named human, and no client relationship exists to defend. Even with full liability and accountability gains this occupation stays capability-exposed on the screen half, so the realistic ceiling is mid-50s and only for the accredited/regulated subset — unaccredited academic and industrial research technicians gain little from any of these levers."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 66890,
        "wage": 48090
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 65220,
        "wage": 49670
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 64260,
        "wage": 50550
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 62080,
        "wage": 52460
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 62230,
        "wage": 49030
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 70770,
        "wage": 50290
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 72230,
        "wage": 58350
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 71400,
        "wage": 60130
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 73910,
        "wage": 62280
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": 10.5,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}