Veterinarians
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Calculated automation risk
Minimal Risk (0-20%): Occupations in this category have a low probability of being automated, as they typically demand complex problem-solving, creativity, strong interpersonal skills, and a high degree of manual dexterity. These jobs often involve intricate hand movements and precise coordination, making it difficult for machines to replicate the required tasks.
More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.
User poll
Our visitors have voted there's a minimal chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 7% 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
The following graph is included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.
Sentiment over time (quarterly)
Sentiment over time (yearly)
Growth
The number of 'Veterinarians' job openings is expected to rise 19.1% by 2033
Total employment, and estimated job openings
Updated projections are due 09-2025.
Wages
In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Veterinarians' was $119,100, or $57 per hour
'Veterinarians' were paid 147.8% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060
Wages over time
Volume
As of 2023 there were 78,220 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'.
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.
SOC Code: 29-1131.00
Comments
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In conclusion, STOP BEING LAZY! STUDY, WORK, and use AI to help in minimal cases, not in every aspect of your life.
First of all, AI is already better at diagnosing diseases than humans. I'm not saying entering symptoms and getting results; AI can diagnose diseases from MRI images. And yes, so far no radiologist could beat AI. So, the diagnosing part will be fully automated. Not only that, but this will reduce the need for veterinarians quite a lot. You need a lot of vets to work in a hospital or in a clinic because their knowledge is needed. But thanks to AI, information is much faster and better from now on. So, a big hospital can work with 2-3 vets only. We shouldn't think this from vets' side; the owners can use AI to diagnose their animals with more than 99% correct diagnosis.
Now... what if the animal needs surgery? Or it is scared? Or it requires labor? This doesn't change anything. We have robots that can do surgeries better than humans already. I'm sure everybody watched that grape video or the video in which a doctor uses robots to fold a paper. Do you know how more difficult this is compared to doing, let's say, spaying a cat? Not difficult at all! That robot could do it with its eyes closed. Ok, but AI cannot replace human relationships. What if the animal is scared or it's angry? The robots are metallic. So even the angriest animal cannot do anything to the AI. Again, AI is better. Another major problem is thinking AI cannot replace human touch. We already have AI that you couldn't even differentiate from humans. Not only this, but we DON'T need to replace the human touch. Do you think animals love human vets? Not at all! But if we switch to robots, everything will be much quicker and better for everyone. This will cause less anxiety to the animal as well.
Let me get this straight. Even TODAY, AI can perform surgeries, AI can chat as if it's a human, AI can know more and learn faster than all people combined in the world. Tell me a single reason why AI wouldn't replace all the vets?
Now... of course there are some arguments. 1) Humans would prefer human vets. Nope! AI will do everything better, faster, and cheaper. Humans make mistakes. Actually, there's a survey (you can look it up) asking people if they would allow AI to do certain things. More than 50% of people said they would allow performing a surgery that is fully automated by an AI on themselves! Now imagine if it were their pets. The number would be over 80%. Do you know why the younger generation trusts AI more and more? Because we know the past. Back then the planes were quite bad. And with the help of the technology, we only need 2 pilots now and guess what? Almost ALL plane accidents happen today because of human error. That's why major companies like Boeing are working on fully automated planes (or 1 pilot at best). Even if the outside is invisible, the sensors can help the plane to not crash, but the human pilot would get us unalived.
2) It would take so long to legalize it. That's a valid argument. But please remember that this HAS ALREADY STARTED. Right now in the USA, we have stethoscopes that can listen to your heart, show its ECG and on the top of all of these, it can even analyze the ECG with AI. They are experimenting how it is going and all doctors love it! That's why it will replace vets so quickly. Another thing is people love anything cheaper. They will want to pay AI than to pay 30 vets. And all vets will be jobless in a few years. AI is not only getting better, faster every SECOND but it's also becoming more and more accessible and accepted by the humans. 3) I'm the best at being a vet, no AI can replace me. LOL!!!!!!!! Just read everything I said earlier. I dare you to take an exam with an AI and let's see who will get higher marks. (Not ChatGPT, I don't understand when I say this people immediately think of ChatGPT. There are medical AI.) Spoiler: They did this with human doctors, only 2 doctors could beat AI out of 50 doctors.
Please don't be sad. ALL jobs will be fully automated; it's just a matter of time. This is for our own good. Don't you want your pet to be treated better, faster, and cheaper? What if a human vet makes a mistake in the surgery and gets your pet unalived? What if you bring your parrot to an emergency vet and he says "I don't know about parrots, sorry"? It sucks! With AI, all these vets are gonna get replaced. You will bring your parrot to the AI, and it will diagnose and treat your parrot in MINUTES!
I don't think ALL vets are gonna get replaced, but I'm pretty sure more than 95% will lose their jobs and this is for everyone's good.
-From a vet who is studying AI for hobby
The most important part of the physical exam is the doctor using all his/her senses to guide the next part of what diagnostics are needed or what can be passed on. These senses include: touch (palpation, body scanning for lesions with tactility), smell (believe it or not, smell is a great subjective tool - diabetic ketoacidosis, you can smell a distinct smell from their breath which is a complex and immediately life threatening condition), vision (vision part is replaceable by AI, but not by current standards; when you are monitoring a lesion/surgical site from healing, through experience you can start to tell with almost a gut feeling how well it's going to respond to treatment based on color, appearance of texture etc and trending it. AI would be taking an almost camera shot and analyzing which is susceptible to variation in interpretation from lighting, angle etc. And it's honestly the minute changes that I note and track over time to see and decide what intervention is needed next), auditory sense (do you know what it's like to try to auscultate a wiggly puppy and what you end up hearing sounds like scuffling sounds at 100% max volume in your airpods. You need to stabilize that wiggly puppy and have very good steady contact, adjust the contact as the puppy moves to decipher the heart rhythm; how would AI do that without compromising well-being of the animal?
You talk about expenses. Physical exams are what guides the next steps in helping our patients who cannot speak to us and cannot advocate for themselves. We use all of our senses with our education to speculate, formulate a plan, discuss this with the owner with compassion and empathy as they are going through a stressful time for their family member. We discuss options based on financial limitations in being able to provide the best outcome with the limited resources. It's not input X -> output Y action. Can AI do that? Can it palpate with the right amount of pressure to get a diagnostic guidance in a critically ill/painful patient and know the limits of how hard you can press on this patient vs standardizing pressure in patients that AI would palpate with. Example: patient who was naughty and ate a christmas decoraction and it's not blocked in the intestine; even without knowing if it's stuck or not, when I see that patient, I can tell it's got a lot of pain in it's abdomen, I don't need to press hard to know oh, we are probably dealing with a blockage here so I know my priorities are to dealing with the abdomen and running diagnostics appropriate for what I have observed so far. Imagine a machines squishes into that dog's belly with same force as it would do on normal exams, that intestinal section can burst, be damaged to the point of having to cut that part out. Unless AI get to a point of replicating all of human emotions and touches and adjusting based on sensory input, it would significantly compromise the care.
Or have you ever been privy to the backroom of the vet clinic as a patient is crashing and it's all hands on deck, all other appointments take a back seat and all medical personal run and attach lines, insert catheters, draw drugs of appropriate for the situation, perform CPR, whilst the code running doc manages the entire personnel like a conductor in an orchestra? Can AI replace that? Have you ever wondered what it is like to have to jump on top of 100 lbs dog as the staff places the dog in a stretcher and you are pressing into his chest as your staff is carrying the stretcher and everyone is synchronizing together with 1 goal of providing the best care/outcome for a precious family member?
Yes, AI can replace parts and aspects of veterinary medicine; i.e. radiology. It cannot replace the human-animal interaction between the veterinary staff and the patient. Nor can it replace the human to human bond when the owner is having the worst day of his/her life and having to make series of difficult decisions. How callous would it be for an AI to just output a response of "grave prognosis - recommend euthanasia. Do you want to proceed now? We are available for another 15 minutes."
Do not sound so certain on how much of an improvement things would be if AI replaced vets when it appears you are not aware of what we provide day to day for our patients and clients.
Legislation and client preferes for human veterinarians might still provide some level of job security and slow down the rate of replacement but are unlikely to reverse or stop the trend.
Thus, one should prepare for the impending era of complete automation.
a lot of development and precision compared to nowadays and animals economic importance is less than human so firstly we need to digitalize medical field as whole for human then will be chance for animals medical field digitalisation
With AI, an animal hospital owner can employ fewer vets who do the same (probably more) in less time which means less vet jobs. They won't just hire more vets as the money saved will be offset in part by the business adaptations required such as AI tech costs and change in competitive environment created by AI. Also, for the same owner to employ the same number of vets or more vets, there would have to be justifiable demand for vet services. AI is projected to create higher underemployment and even unemployment which is why they're talking about a very basic universal income and reducing or phasing out social security. People don't choose to go to the vet if they don't have the money. The GDP is slated to grow but so is the wealth divide meaning fewer customers. The lucky vets will have those few rich customers willing to spend a lot and they will only go to the best vets who really care about animals.
Most vet services are diagnostic. AI will create better home diagnostic tools and remote diagnostic competitors which is tied in to my first point about costs for business adaptations. AI is also advancing to the point where it is creating new and better AI capable of developing solutions that humans would never be capable of. This means advancements in the fields of robotics and life sciences that we have never known before. It's only a relatively small matter of time before AI is capable of creating robots capable of performing surgery or more realistically AI will streamline the diagnostic process and even heal complex issues. The assumption most are making is that it is all about robotic surgery which does not take into account more effective minimally invasive medical procedures that are the better choice, but aren't chosen because they're still being developed such as the use of nanites, chemical and other therapies. AI is about to create smarter AI that will solve these problems. So vets will be impacted as they will be fighting for a smaller pool amongst a larger group and in a new business environment. Conclusion, I wouldn't think vets are safe in the least and these changes are coming in this generation. You can't compare the speed of development of the AI Age to the Industrial or Information Age. AI is leagues ahead in terms of speed and analytical capability. Conclusion. Be a vet only if you truly want to be one and you have the skill to be the best.
You might think all the tricks will be incorporated into the AI program. This could be the case, but each animal responds according to its character to certain tricks. There is no general rule in dealing with animals, and that is what might make the AI career in veterinary medicine lacking.
Moreover, veterinary medicine is progressing at a high rate, and what we already know is only a small proportion of what this career can still offer in the future. A robot can operate, but can it discover? If it really can, then all careers are doomed, not just veterinary medicine.
Human doctors could possibly be partially replaced in the consultation department, but not veterinarians. A robot does not know how to hold or handle a cat. They do not know how to ethically handle a panicking cat without injuring them.
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!
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