Data study · 1 October 2026 · 5 min read

Jobs safe from AI and robots, by the data

The jobs least exposed to both AI and robots, from Anthropic data and our index: surgeons, dentists, paramedics and more. The list, and what they share.

The jobs least exposed to both AI and robots are hands on, in person and hard to predict: surgeons, dentists, paramedics, optometrists, dental hygienists, physician assistants and dancers. Each sits near zero on Anthropic's robot index, shows little or no AI use in Anthropic's workplace data, and scores among the lowest in our index.

No job is safe forever, and this is not a promise. It is what three independent measures agree on today.

How we built the list

We combined three sources for every occupation they share:

1. Robot exposure, a 0 to 3 index from Anthropic's September 2026 robotics study. We kept occupations at 0.1 or below.
2. Observed language AI exposure, the share of tasks already showing up in automated work use of Claude, from Anthropic's March 2026 labor market study.
3. Our own AI displacement risk score, which aggregates published research across 961 occupations.

Then we sorted by our score, lowest first.

The least exposed jobs

Our risk scores as of 1 October 2026; they update as new research is added, and each occupation page shows the current figure and its sources.

What these jobs have in common

Almost all of them involve working on or with a human body, in person, in a setting where every case is a little different. That is the hardest combination for both technologies. Language models cannot do physical work, and robots struggle most where conditions vary and where people want a person, which Anthropic's study found is a barrier for about a quarter of physical tasks.

Jobs that look safe but are not on the list

Some familiar jobs score near zero on one measure and not the other:

• Truck and taxi drivers show no AI use at all, but are the most exposed occupations to robots, at 1.51 and 2.22.
• Cashiers score 1.00 on robots and 48 in our index, well above most jobs on this page.
• Electricians and plumbers score low on both, but above our 0.1 robot cut off, at 0.33 and 0.51. Robots can do parts of the work in controlled settings.
• Registered nurses score near zero on robots but show some AI use, about 6 percent of tasks, mostly documentation.

Low exposure is not zero risk

These scores describe the typical version of each job. A dental practice that moves its paperwork, scheduling and billing to AI changes the job of everyone in it, even if the clinical work stays. And the jobs at the top of our index got there through the same kind of gradual change, one task at a time.

Your own exposure depends on what your week is actually made of. The assessment scores that in about two minutes, free and with no account. For the full picture of how the two technologies split the workforce, see AI vs robots.

Figures come from the AI Job Risk Index and were current when this was published. Scores change as new research is ingested, so the index is always the live version. See how scoring works. Informational guidance based on published research, not professional career or financial advice.