--- title: "Will AI Replace Dermatologists? (2026)" description: "BLS rates dermatologists' exposure to AI as moderate. What that means, which parts of the work AI touches, and the 2025–2035 outlook (+6.8% projected)." canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-dermatologists" last-updated: "2026-10-15T08:19:32.066Z" --- # Will AI Replace Dermatologists? (2026) **Short answer:** Unlikely. BLS rates the work's exposure to AI as moderate, below the middle of the pack, and still projects employment to grow faster than average. The Bureau of Labor Statistics places dermatologists in its moderate AI exposure category, below the middle of the pack: some of the work overlaps with what AI can do, much of it does not. BLS projects employment to change by +6.8% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 400 openings a year. | Measure | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | BLS relative AI exposure | Moderate | BLS Employment Projections, AI exposure categories | | NueCareer AI-resilience score | 42/100 | NueCareer analysis of O\*NET 31.0 Database | | Projected employment change | +6.8% | BLS EP 2025–2035 | | Openings a year | 400 | BLS EP 2025–2035 | | Median annual wage | $328,730 | BLS OEWS May 2025 | ## Exposure categories | BLS category | Occupations | | --- | --- | | Low | 203 | | Moderate (this job) | 194 | | High | 190 | | Very high | 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 - Assisting and caring for others: 4.8/5 (O\*NET work activity importance) - Face-to-face discussions: 5.0/5 (O\*NET work context) - Establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships: 4.3/5 (O\*NET work activity importance) - Dealing with the public: 4.8/5 (O\*NET work context) ## What AI reaches first - Documenting/recording information: 4.6/5 (O\*NET work activity importance) - Getting information: 4.6/5 (O\*NET work activity importance) - Working with computers: 4.1/5 (O\*NET work activity importance) - Processing information: 3.6/5 (O\*NET work activity importance) ## O\*NET tasks - Conduct complete skin examinations. - Diagnose and treat pigmented lesions such as common acquired nevi, congenital nevi, dysplastic nevi, Spitz nevi, blue nevi, or melanoma. - Perform skin surgery to improve appearance, make early diagnoses, or control diseases such as skin cancer. - Counsel patients on topics such as the need for annual dermatologic screenings, sun protection, skin cancer awareness, or skin and lymph node self-examinations. - Diagnose and treat skin conditions such as acne, dandruff, athlete's foot, moles, psoriasis, or skin cancer. - Record patients' health histories. ## Related careers less exposed to AI than dermatologists - [Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon](https://nuecareer.com/careers/oral-and-maxillofacial-surgeon): BLS exposure Low, median $352,220 - [Prosthodontist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/prosthodontist): BLS exposure Low, median $311,180 - [Anesthesiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/anesthesiologist): BLS exposure Low, median $391,490; [Will AI replace anesthesiologists?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-anesthesiologists) ## FAQ **Will AI replace dermatologists?** Unlikely. BLS rates the work's exposure to AI as moderate, below the middle of the pack, and 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 +6.8% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 400 openings a year. **How exposed are dermatologists to AI?** BLS sorts 786 occupations into four relative categories: low, moderate, high and very high. Dermatologists are in the moderate category, alongside 193 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 dermatologist's job can AI do?** In O\*NET's description of the work, the parts that overlap most with what AI handles well are documenting/recording information, getting information and working with computers. The parts that hold up best are assisting and caring for others, face-to-face discussions and establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships. 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 dermatologist a safe career from AI?** On NueCareer's AI-resilience score, built from O\*NET work activities, dermatologists score 42 out of 100, higher than 45% of the occupations we score. The job pays a median of $328,730 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. **What careers similar to dermatologists are less exposed to AI?** Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon (low exposure, $352,220 median), Prosthodontist (low exposure, $311,180 median), Anesthesiologist (low exposure, $391,490 median). Each is in a lower BLS exposure category than dermatologists, and most are listed by O\*NET as related to the work. Full profile: https://nuecareer.com/careers/dermatologist. --- 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