---
title: "Will AI Replace Nurse Practitioners? (2026)"
description: "BLS rates nurse practitioners' exposure to AI as high. What that means, which parts of the work AI touches, and the 2025–2035 outlook (+41.0% projected)."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-nurse-practitioners"
last-updated: "2026-10-15T08:19:32.066Z"
---

# Will AI Replace Nurse Practitioners? (2026)

**Short answer:** Not replaced, but changed. BLS rates the exposure as high, so AI can help with a real share of the work, yet it still projects employment to grow faster than average.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics places nurse practitioners in its high AI exposure category, above the middle of the pack: a substantial share of the work overlaps with what AI can do. BLS projects employment to change by +41.0% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 29,400 openings a year.

| Measure | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| BLS relative AI exposure | High | BLS Employment Projections, AI exposure categories |
| NueCareer AI-resilience score | 43/100 | NueCareer analysis of O\*NET 31.0 Database |
| Projected employment change | +41.0% | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Openings a year | 29,400 | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Median annual wage | $132,300 | BLS OEWS May 2025 |

## Exposure categories

| BLS category | Occupations |
| --- | --- |
| Low | 203 |
| Moderate | 194 |
| High (this job) | 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: 4.5/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Face-to-face discussions: 5.0/5 (O\*NET work context)
- Performing for or working directly with the public: 4.1/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships: 4.3/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## What AI reaches first

- Documenting/recording information: 4.7/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Processing information: 4.2/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Analyzing data or information: 4.3/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Getting information: 4.6/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## O\*NET tasks

- Maintain complete and detailed records of patients' health care plans and prognoses.
- Develop treatment plans, based on scientific rationale, standards of care, and professional practice guidelines.
- Provide patients with information needed to promote health, reduce risk factors, or prevent disease or disability.
- Analyze and interpret patients' histories, symptoms, physical findings, or diagnostic information to develop appropriate diagnoses.
- Diagnose or treat complex, unstable, comorbid, episodic, or emergency conditions in collaboration with other health care providers as necessary.
- Prescribe medication dosages, routes, and frequencies, based on such patient characteristics as age and gender.

## Related careers less exposed to AI than nurse practitioners

- [Nurse Anesthetist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-anesthetist): BLS exposure Low, median $236,590; [Will AI replace nurse anesthetists?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-nurse-anesthetists)
- [Anesthesiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/anesthesiologist): BLS exposure Low, median $391,490; [Will AI replace anesthesiologists?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-anesthesiologists)
- [Anesthesiologist Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/anesthesiologist-assistant): BLS exposure Low, median $135,880
- [Dentist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dentist): BLS exposure Moderate, median $170,950; [Will AI replace dentists?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-dentists)
- [Orthodontist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/orthodontist): BLS exposure Moderate, median $289,140; [Will AI replace orthodontists?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-orthodontists)
- [Ophthalmologist, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmologist): BLS exposure Moderate, median $300,080

## FAQ

**Will AI replace nurse practitioners?**

Not replaced, but changed. BLS rates the exposure as high, so AI can help with a real share of the work, 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 +41.0% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 29,400 openings a year.

**How exposed are nurse practitioners to AI?**

BLS sorts 786 occupations into four relative categories: low, moderate, high and very high. Nurse Practitioners are in the high category, alongside 189 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 nurse practitioner'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, processing information and analyzing data or information. The parts that hold up best are assisting and caring for others, face-to-face discussions 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 nurse practitioner a safe career from AI?**

On NueCareer's AI-resilience score, built from O\*NET work activities, nurse practitioners score 43 out of 100, higher than 47% of the occupations we score. The job pays a median of $132,300 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 nurse practitioners are less exposed to AI?**

Nurse Anesthetist (low exposure, $236,590 median), Anesthesiologist (low exposure, $391,490 median), Anesthesiologist Assistant (low exposure, $135,880 median), Dentist (moderate exposure, $170,950 median). Each is in a lower BLS exposure category than nurse practitioners, and most are listed by O\*NET as related to the work.

Full profile: https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-practitioner.

---

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