Pharmacists
Pharmacists dispense drugs and medicaments in hospitals and pharmacies and advise on and participate in the development and testing of new drugs, compounds and therapies. They counsel on the proper use and adverse effects of drugs and medicines.
- Employees (UK)
- 60k
- Median annual pay
- £47,508
- Exposure score ?
- 1.3/10 Minimal 7.5/10 High strict reading, with tools is 7.5/10 with-tools reading, strict is 1.3/10
- Wage exposure
- £371m £2.14bn
Higher exposure than 63% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Most of the routine work in this role can already be done by a capable model. The role does not disappear, but its shape changes, and one person can credibly cover the work of several.
If you are in this role
Stop spending time on what a model can do well. Your value is judgement, relationships and the parts of the work that need you in the room. Redesign the workflow around that before someone else does it for you.
Where the work usually starts.
These are the most important tasks a language model can already handle directly. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around them, so they stop eating the team's time.
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Update or troubleshoot pharmacy information databases.
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Teach pharmacy students serving as interns in preparation for their graduation or licensure.
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Publish educational information for other pharmacists, doctors, or patients.
These are the most important tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. The first wins usually come from building workflows around them. That is the difference between a model that could do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Review prescriptions to assure accuracy, to ascertain the needed ingredients, and to evaluate their suitability.
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Provide information and advice regarding drug interactions, side effects, dosage, and proper medication storage.
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Analyze prescribing trends to monitor patient compliance and to prevent excessive usage or harmful interactions.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Pharmacists" (29-1051.00).
What AI can already do
3 of 20 tasks, unaided
Update or troubleshoot pharmacy information databases.
Teach pharmacy students serving as interns in preparation for their graduation or licensure.
Publish educational information for other pharmacists, doctors, or patients.
What still needs a person
17 of 20 tasks
Review prescriptions to assure accuracy, to ascertain the needed ingredients, and to evaluate their suitability.
Assess the identity, strength, or purity of medications.
Provide information and advice regarding drug interactions, side effects, dosage, and proper medication storage.
Analyze prescribing trends to monitor patient compliance and to prevent excessive usage or harmful interactions.
Maintain records, such as pharmacy files, patient profiles, charge system files, inventories, control records for radioactive nuclei, or registries of poisons, narcotics, or controlled drugs.
Collaborate with other health care professionals to plan, monitor, review, or evaluate the quality or effectiveness of drugs or drug regimens, providing advice on drug applications or characteristics.
Plan, implement, or maintain procedures for mixing, packaging, or labeling pharmaceuticals, according to policy and legal requirements, to ensure quality, security, and proper disposal.
Order and purchase pharmaceutical supplies, medical supplies, or drugs, maintaining stock and storing and handling it properly.
Compound and dispense medications as prescribed by doctors and dentists, by calculating, weighing, measuring, and mixing ingredients, or oversee these activities.
Contact insurance companies to resolve billing issues.
Work in hospitals or clinics or for Health Management Organizations (HMOs), dispensing prescriptions, serving as a medical team consultant, or specializing in specific drug therapy areas, such as oncology or nuclear pharmacotherapy.
Advise customers on the selection of medication brands, medical equipment, or healthcare supplies.
Manage pharmacy operations, hiring or supervising staff, performing administrative duties, or buying or selling non-pharmaceutical merchandise.
Prepare sterile solutions or infusions for use in surgical procedures, emergency rooms, or patients' homes.
Offer health promotion or prevention activities, such as training people to use blood pressure devices or diabetes monitors.
Provide specialized services to help patients manage conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, smoking cessation, or high blood pressure.
Refer patients to other health professionals or agencies when appropriate.
Tasks via O*NET "Pharmacists" (29-1051.00).
What AI can already do
15 of 20 tasks, with tools
Review prescriptions to assure accuracy, to ascertain the needed ingredients, and to evaluate their suitability.
Provide information and advice regarding drug interactions, side effects, dosage, and proper medication storage.
Analyze prescribing trends to monitor patient compliance and to prevent excessive usage or harmful interactions.
Maintain records, such as pharmacy files, patient profiles, charge system files, inventories, control records for radioactive nuclei, or registries of poisons, narcotics, or controlled drugs.
Collaborate with other health care professionals to plan, monitor, review, or evaluate the quality or effectiveness of drugs or drug regimens, providing advice on drug applications or characteristics.
Order and purchase pharmaceutical supplies, medical supplies, or drugs, maintaining stock and storing and handling it properly.
Contact insurance companies to resolve billing issues.
Work in hospitals or clinics or for Health Management Organizations (HMOs), dispensing prescriptions, serving as a medical team consultant, or specializing in specific drug therapy areas, such as oncology or nuclear pharmacotherapy.
Advise customers on the selection of medication brands, medical equipment, or healthcare supplies.
Update or troubleshoot pharmacy information databases.
Manage pharmacy operations, hiring or supervising staff, performing administrative duties, or buying or selling non-pharmaceutical merchandise.
Teach pharmacy students serving as interns in preparation for their graduation or licensure.
Provide specialized services to help patients manage conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, smoking cessation, or high blood pressure.
Refer patients to other health professionals or agencies when appropriate.
Publish educational information for other pharmacists, doctors, or patients.
What still needs a person
5 of 20 tasks
Assess the identity, strength, or purity of medications.
Plan, implement, or maintain procedures for mixing, packaging, or labeling pharmaceuticals, according to policy and legal requirements, to ensure quality, security, and proper disposal.
Compound and dispense medications as prescribed by doctors and dentists, by calculating, weighing, measuring, and mixing ingredients, or oversee these activities.
Prepare sterile solutions or infusions for use in surgical procedures, emergency rooms, or patients' homes.
Offer health promotion or prevention activities, such as training people to use blood pressure devices or diabetes monitors.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Professional occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons