---
title: "Will AI Replace Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants?"
description: "BLS rates medical secretaries and administrative assistants' exposure to AI as very high. What that means, which parts of the work AI touches, and the…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-medical-secretaries-and-administrative-assistants"
last-updated: "2026-10-15T08:19:32.066Z"
---

# Will AI Replace Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants? (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 medical secretaries and administrative assistants in its very high AI exposure category, among the occupations most exposed to current AI. BLS projects employment to change by +4.8% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 89,200 openings a year.

| Measure | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| BLS relative AI exposure | Very high | BLS Employment Projections, AI exposure categories |
| NueCareer AI-resilience score | 27/100 | NueCareer analysis of O\*NET 31.0 Database |
| Projected employment change | +4.8% | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Openings a year | 89,200 | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Median annual wage | $45,930 | 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: 4.8/5 (O\*NET work context)
- Assisting and caring for others: 4.1/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Performing for or working directly with the public: 4.3/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships: 4.0/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## What AI reaches first

- Processing information: 4.4/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Repeating the same tasks: 4.6/5 (O\*NET work context)
- Documenting/recording information: 4.0/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Performing administrative activities: 4.1/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## O\*NET tasks

- Answer telephones and direct calls to appropriate staff.
- Schedule and confirm patient diagnostic appointments, surgeries, or medical consultations.
- Transmit correspondence or medical records by mail, e-mail, or fax.
- Operate office equipment, such as voice mail messaging systems, and use word processing, spreadsheet, or other software applications to prepare reports, invoices, financial statements, letters, case histories, or medical records.
- Receive and route messages or documents, such as laboratory results, to appropriate staff.
- Greet visitors, ascertain purpose of visit, and direct them to appropriate staff.

## Related careers less exposed to AI than medical secretaries and administrative assistants

- [Postal Service Mail Sorter, Processor, and Processing Machine Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/postal-service-mail-sorter-processor-and-processing-machine-operator): BLS exposure Low, median $58,470; [Will AI replace postal service mail sorters?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-postal-service-mail-sorters)
- [Postal Service Mail Carrier](https://nuecareer.com/careers/postal-service-mail-carrier): BLS exposure Moderate, median $60,550; [Will AI replace postal service mail carriers?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-postal-service-mail-carriers)
- [Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-assistant): BLS exposure Moderate, median $45,690; [Will AI replace medical assistants?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-medical-assistants)
- [Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shipping-receiving-and-inventory-clerk): BLS exposure High, median $45,260; [Will AI replace shipping clerks?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-shipping-clerks)
- [Teller](https://nuecareer.com/careers/teller): BLS exposure High, median $43,030; [Will AI replace tellers?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-tellers)
- [Patient Representative](https://nuecareer.com/careers/patient-representative): BLS exposure High, median $50,290

## FAQ

**Will AI replace medical secretaries and administrative assistants?**

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 +4.8% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 89,200 openings a year.

**How exposed are medical secretaries and administrative assistants to AI?**

BLS sorts 786 occupations into four relative categories: low, moderate, high and very high. Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants 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 medical secretary and administrative assistant'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, repeating the same tasks and documenting/recording information. The parts that hold up best are face-to-face discussions, assisting and caring for others and performing for or working directly with the public. 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 medical secretary and administrative assistant a safe career from AI?**

On NueCareer's AI-resilience score, built from O\*NET work activities, medical secretaries and administrative assistants score 27 out of 100, higher than 18% of the occupations we score. The job pays a median of $45,930 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 medical secretaries and administrative assistants are less exposed to AI?**

Postal Service Mail Sorter, Processor, and Processing Machine Operator (low exposure, $58,470 median), Postal Service Mail Carrier (moderate exposure, $60,550 median), Medical Assistant (moderate exposure, $45,690 median), Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerk (high exposure, $45,260 median). Each is in a lower BLS exposure category than medical secretaries and administrative assistants, and most are listed by O\*NET as related to the work.

Full profile: https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-secretary-and-administrative-assistant.

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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