Will AI replace Physics Teachers, Postsecondary?

What this score means

Physics Teachers, Postsecondary leans toward the safer end for Education. Parts of the role touch tasks AI is getting good at, but the core still depends on hands-on work or judgment that resists automation. At 36 out of 100 it scores 5 points below the Education average of 41. Across the 4 sources behind this baseline, individual estimates run from 20 to 55, so the score is a weighted consensus rather than any single figure.

The number is a consensus estimate for the typical version of the role, built from published academic and industry research scored occupation by occupation. It is not a prediction about any individual. How scoring works

What this job actually involves

Exposure follows the work itself rather than the job title, so it is worth seeing what the role is made of. These are the tasks O*NET records for Physics Teachers, Postsecondary, most central first, showing 12 of 24.

• 01Evaluate and grade students' class work, laboratory work, assignments, and papers.
• 02Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
• 03Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
• 04Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as quantum mechanics, particle physics, and optics.
• 05Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
• 06Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
• 07Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
• 08Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
• 09Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
• 10Supervise students' laboratory work.
• 11Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
• 12Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.

Task statements from O*NET by the National Center for O*NET Development, used under CC BY 4.0. The tasks are descriptive; the exposure score above is ours.

The research behind this score

This baseline aggregates 4 research sources that scored Physics Teachers, Postsecondary for AI and automation exposure. More recent, higher confidence studies carry more weight in the final number.

• 01Anthropic Economic Index 2026 - AI Task Exposure · 2026
• 02Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure · 2025
• 03GPTs are GPTs: Labor Market Impact Potential of LLMs · 2024
• 04AI Occupational Exposure to Language Modeling · 2023

Also covers

Acoustics Teacher · Adjunct Instructor · Adjunct Physics Instructor · Adjunct Professor · Aerodynamics Professor · Aerodynamics Teacher · Assistant Professor · Associate Professor and related titles

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