---
title: "Will AI Replace Data Scientists? (2026)"
description: "BLS rates data scientists' exposure to AI as very high. What that means, which parts of the work AI touches, and the 2025–2035 outlook (+34.6% projected)."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-data-scientists"
last-updated: "2026-10-15T08:19:32.066Z"
---

# Will AI Replace Data Scientists? (2026)

**Short answer:** AI will reshape this job more than most, but BLS does not forecast it disappearing. The exposure is among the highest BLS measured, yet it still projects employment to grow faster than average.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics places data scientists in its very high AI exposure category, among the occupations most exposed to current AI. BLS projects employment to change by +34.6% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 24,800 openings a year.

| Measure | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| BLS relative AI exposure | Very high | BLS Employment Projections, AI exposure categories |
| NueCareer AI-resilience score | 4/100 | NueCareer analysis of O\*NET 31.0 Database |
| Projected employment change | +34.6% | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Openings a year | 24,800 | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Median annual wage | $120,230 | BLS OEWS May 2025 |

## Exposure categories

| BLS category | Occupations |
| --- | --- |
| Low | 203 |
| Moderate | 194 |
| High | 190 |
| Very high (this job) | 199 |

Exposure means AI could be or has been used to assist with or complete some of the work. BLS says it does not imply job loss, productivity gains, automation probability or wage effects. Method: https://www.bls.gov/emp/publications/ai-exposure-categories.htm

## What holds up

- Face-to-face discussions: 4.2/5 (O\*NET work context)
- Making decisions and solving problems: 4.3/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Thinking creatively: 3.8/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Hands-on work with tools and objects: 3.4/5 (O\*NET work context)

## What AI reaches first

- Processing information: 4.7/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Analyzing data or information: 4.8/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Working with computers: 4.8/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Documenting/recording information: 3.9/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## O\*NET tasks

- Analyze, manipulate, or process large sets of data using statistical software.
- Create graphs, charts, or other visualizations to convey the results of data analysis using specialized software.
- Test, validate, and reformulate models to ensure accurate prediction of outcomes of interest.
- Deliver oral or written presentations of the results of mathematical modeling and data analysis to management or other end users.
- Recommend data-driven solutions to key stakeholders.
- Compare models using statistical performance metrics, such as loss functions or proportion of explained variance.

## FAQ

**Will AI replace data scientists?**

AI will reshape this job more than most, but BLS does not forecast it disappearing. The exposure is among the highest BLS measured, yet it still projects employment to grow faster than average. BLS defines exposure as AI being able to assist with or complete some of the work, and says it does not imply job loss, productivity gains or wage effects. BLS projects employment to change by +34.6% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 24,800 openings a year.

**How exposed are data scientists to AI?**

BLS sorts 786 occupations into four relative categories: low, moderate, high and very high. Data Scientists are in the very high category, alongside 198 other occupations. The categories combine five public measures of where AI could be or already is used, and they compare occupations with each other rather than giving an absolute risk.

**What parts of a data scientist's job can AI do?**

In O\*NET's description of the work, the parts that overlap most with what AI handles well are processing information, analyzing data or information and working with computers. The parts that hold up best are face-to-face discussions, making decisions and solving problems and thinking creatively. These come from O\*NET ratings of how important each activity is to the job, read through NueCareer's AI-resilience method.

**Is being a data scientist a safe career from AI?**

On NueCareer's AI-resilience score, built from O\*NET work activities, data scientists score 4 out of 100, higher than 0% of the occupations we score. The job pays a median of $120,230 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025). No job is fully safe from technological change, but the federal exposure category and the projected openings are the two numbers worth weighing.

Full profile: https://nuecareer.com/careers/data-scientist.

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology