Biologist
| Median wage (USD) | 98920 |
|---|---|
| Projected employment growth (%) | 5 |
| AI exposure (%) | 38 |
| Maximum exposure (%) | 44 |
| Source | eloundou |
| What AI changes in this occupation | Screening the scientific literature, statistically analysing datasets, writing the analysis code, drafting the first version of a technical report and checking a document against a standard are now done in minutes from raw data or from a set of requirements: these are exactly the tasks the O*NET profile ranks among the occupation's most important — program and use computers to store, process and analyse data (78 out of 100), prepare technical and research reports (77), collect and analyse biological data (72), review reports and proposals against policies and standards (72) — and the desk half of the job is the first to be delegated BLS projects only +5% for the group that carries this occupation ("biological scientists, all other", SOC 19-1029) between 2025 and 2035 — 2,800 more jobs, 4,300 openings a year mostly from replacement — and a degree gates entry: BLS puts the typical entry-level education at a bachelor's degree while O*NET places the profile in Job Zone Five (graduate school, a master's, sometimes a doctorate). Living things do not digitise like text: what goes quickly is data processing and writing, not the bench, the field, or responsibility for the signed result — and an occupation whose administrative half automates while the number of jobs grows only 5% is played out on specialisation, not on volume Fieldwork and the bench remain the core of the job: 47% of O*NET respondents work outdoors in all weather conditions at least once a week, and 39% spend about half their time on repetitive motions. Taking a representative sample, measuring the salinity, acidity or oxygen content of a stream, identifying and classifying a species, studying how a land use affects the environment, supervising laboratory technicians, maintaining the relationship with an agency or a public body and answering for the integrity of a result cannot be delegated — and that is precisely the share the Eloundou study leaves untouched (44% at most) |
| Key skills | Organismal biology and ecology (species identification, classification, structure, behaviour, physiology, distribution) · field work: representative sampling, surveys, measuring the physical and chemical conditions of the environment · laboratory work and good practice (culture, dissection, instrumentation, safety) · statistical analysis and biological data processing (R, Python, biostatistics) · bioinformatics and computational biology (sequences, genomics, modelling) · scientific and technical writing (reports, papers, grant proposals) · securing funding, requests for proposals and statements of work · supervising technicians, technologists and students · environmental regulation, standards and scientific integrity · relations with public bodies, partners and the public · generative AI tools for data analysis, literature review and report writing |
| Courses to get ahead | Biology Meets Programming: Bioinformatics for Beginners · Coursera (University of California San Diego) · 2 weeks at 10 hours a week · 90 · The course that attacks the O*NET profile's most important task — program and use computers to store, process and analyse data (78 out of 100) — and its second most exposed one, the analysis of biological data. It starts from real biology questions, such as where replication begins in the genome, and has you write the algorithms in Python with no programming prerequisite: precisely the skill that separates a biologist whose data work is delegated from one who runs it. Writing in the Sciences · Coursera (Stanford Online) · 3 weeks at 10 hours a week · 91 · Writing technical and research reports (77 out of 100) and grant proposals (71) are two of the profile's most exposed tasks: a first draft can be generated, the ability to say what the data prove cannot. Stanford's course works on the scientific sentence, the structure of a paper and the art of cutting — what remains when AI produces version one. AI For Everyone · Coursera (DeepLearning.AI) · About 7 hours in total · 85 · For deciding what is delegated and what is not: the course explains what generative AI can produce — literature screening, analysis, a first draft of a report —, where it gets things wrong, and how to frame a use that does not lose the data trail. A biologist whose occupation is 38% exposed and 44% at most needs to know exactly what goes in their place. Introduction to Genetics and Evolution · Coursera (Duke University) · 3 weeks at 10 hours a week · 87 Mathematical Biostatistics Boot Camp 1 · Coursera (Johns Hopkins University) · 1 week at 10 hours a week · 83 Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT · Coursera (Vanderbilt University) · 2 weeks at 10 hours a week · 80 |
| Occupations to pivot toward | Microbiologist · 87990 · 6 · 31 Biochemist and Biophysicist · 127410 · 12 · 44 Epidemiologist · 87220 · 19 · 56 |
| Skills to acquire for the pivot | Eloundou measures the biologist's exposure at 38% (human β) and up to 44% (human ζ): programming and using computers to store, process and analyse data, preparing technical and research reports, collecting and analysing biological data, reviewing reports and proposals against policies and standards, writing grant proposals, preparing requests for proposals and communicating results are largely delegable, but researching environmental effects in the field, maintaining working relations with agencies and the public, identifying and classifying species, studying the basic principles of living things and measuring the physical conditions of the environment remain human. Within the repository, 38 puts the biologist 57th of the ninety-seven occupations: fifty-six occupations have a higher exposure, thirty-eight a lower one, and two are tied with it (the nurse and the physician, 38); its nearest neighbours above are the occupational therapist (39), the pharmacist and the project manager (40), the graphic designer and the real estate agent (41), below the buyer and the tutor (37), then the cashier, the salesperson and the labour inspector (36). Its ζ of 44 places it 69th: sixty-eight occupations have a higher ζ, twenty-eight a lower one, none is tied with it, the closest being above the salesperson (45) and the radiologic technologist (46), below the veterinarian and the labour inspector (43). The SOC code used is 19-1029.04 "Biologists": it is confirmed by the occupation's O*NET profile and by the Eloundou dataset, which carries a line titled exactly "Biologists" under that code — two sources that agree, nothing assumed. O*NET files under this profile job titles as different as aquatic biologist, botanist, fisheries and wildlife biologist, marine biologist or research scientist: the profile covers a family, not a single post. The GPT-4 self-rated series (β 49, ζ 76) is kept in expositionGpt4 and is not displayed, in line with the decision of 21 August 2026. BLS projects +5% for the group that carries this occupation between 2025 and 2035, that is 2,800 more jobs, 59,600 workers in 2025 and about 4,300 openings a year over the decade, mostly replacing people who transfer to other occupations or exit the labour force, for instance to retire; it is BLS's "faster than average" category, but only just above the average for all occupations. The "Biologists" profile has no dedicated page in the Occupational Outlook Handbook: BLS publishes its figures for the group "biological scientists, all other" (SOC 19-1029), which gathers biological scientists not listed separately, and it is that page — "Data for occupations not covered in detail" — that carries the salary and growth shown here; O*NET explicitly links codes 19-1029.00, .01, .02, .03 and .04 to that group, the last of which is this profile. O*NET confirms the same orders of magnitude — 59,600 workers in 2025, growth "faster than average" of 5% to 6%, 4,300 openings over 2025-2035 — and places the occupation in Job Zone Five, extensive preparation: most of these jobs require graduate school, a master's degree, sometimes a doctorate; BLS, for its part, puts the typical entry-level education at a bachelor's degree, with no related work experience and no on-the-job training required, a gap worth knowing before committing. The work also happens outdoors: 47% of O*NET respondents report working outdoors, exposed to all weather conditions, at least once a week, and 39% spend about half their time on repetitive motions. The ζ of 44% says a little under half the job is at least partly transformable: what holds the employment is not the technicality of the computation, but the fact that living things are sampled, grown and observed, and that a scientific result engages the responsibility of the person who signs it. The median salary shown is $98,920 a year, the May 2025 figure from BLS for group 19-1029 ($47.56 an hour), published on the Occupational Outlook Handbook page "Data for occupations not covered in detail" and reported identically by O*NET for profile 19-1029.04 — both sources give the same median, with no divergence. For context, in the same May 2025 snapshot, all occupations stand at $50,980, and the three pivots on this card are at $87,990 (microbiologist, +6%), $127,410 (biochemist and biophysicist, +12%) and $87,220 (epidemiologist, +19%), each taken from its own BLS page. The occupation is highly educated: O*NET places it in Job Zone Five and BLS puts the typical entry-level education at a bachelor's degree, with no related work experience and no on-the-job training required. Progression runs through specialisation — genomics, bioinformatics, applied ecology, ecotoxicology, regulation — and through the ability to carry a funded research programme, which writing grant proposals, a task AI speeds up but does not sign, continues to command. Every value on this card comes from a named source; only the task shares, derived from O*NET importance scores, and the course scores are editorial estimates, documented in _ponderation. |
| GPT-4 exposure — beta / zeta (%) | 49 · 76 |