Radiation Therapists
In short: today's best AI models could do about 29% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 71% of the time, stays with people.
Provide radiation therapy to patients as prescribed by a radiation oncologist according to established practices and standards. Duties may include reviewing prescription and diagnosis; acting as liaison with physician and supportive care personnel; preparing equipment, such as immobilization, treatment, and protection devices; and maintaining records, reports, and files. May assist in dosimetry procedures and tumor localization.
17,070 people do this job in the US. $105,310 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on11 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people29 h
Radiation Therapists, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 11 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 29 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Help physicians, radiation oncologists, or clinical physicists to prepare physical or technical aspects of radiation treatment plans, using information about patient condition and anatomy (about 4 h); Maintain records, reports, or files as required, including such information as radiation dosages, equipment settings, or patients' reactions (about 2 h); Act as liaison with physicist and supportive care personnel (about 2 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 29%
- 0%
- 71%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 5%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 25%. Today's estimate: 29%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, no reportable share went to this job's tasks in May 2026; 0 of its 22 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.0084% to 0.0043% (released February and March 2025).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.0084% | 550 of 708 | 3 of 22 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.0043% | 599 of 703 | 2 of 22 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | none | n/a | 0 of 22 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.0048% | 577 of 672 | 2 of 22 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 22 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 22 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 22 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 62% of this job's working time as physical work. For 46% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 27% in a purpose-built cell, 19% in a structured facility. 0.65 of 3, the 271st highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 38%
- No robot shown 16%
- In a purpose-built cell 27%
- In a structured facility 19%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 22 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare or construct equipment, such as immobilization, treatment, or protection devices.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 11% | 50 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Help physicians, radiation oncologists, or clinical physicists to prepare physical or technical aspects of radiation treatment plans, using information about patient condition and anatomy.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 10% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | 99%Half by now | |
| Conduct most treatment sessions independently, in accordance with the long-term treatment plan and under the general direction of the patient's physician.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, CyberKnife with Synchrony (Accuray) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 9% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Administer prescribed doses of radiation to specific body parts, using radiation therapy equipment according to established practices and standards.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, CyberKnife (with RoboCouch Patient Positioning System) (Accuray / KUKA) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Train or supervise student or subordinate radiotherapy technologists.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Maintain records, reports, or files as required, including such information as radiation dosages, equipment settings, or patients' reactions.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Educate, prepare, and reassure patients and their families by answering questions, providing physical assistance, and reinforcing physicians' advice regarding treatment reactions or post-treatment care.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 17 min8 min to 29 min | Stays with people | |
| Position patients for treatment with accuracy, according to prescription.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Elekta Synergy remote/automatic treatment couch with XVI cone-beam CT (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 10 min4 min to 21 min | Stays with people | |
| Check for side effects, such as skin irritation, nausea, or hair loss to assess patients' reaction to treatment.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 13 min4 min to 21 min | Stays with people | |
| Photograph treated area of patient and process film.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, CyberKnife (Accuray) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 17 min8 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Act as liaison with physicist and supportive care personnel.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 17 min4 min to 25 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Follow principles of radiation protection for patient, self, and others.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 8 min4 min to 13 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Radiation Therapists is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 29% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 29% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Radiation Therapists come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Help physicians, radiation oncologists, or clinical physicists to prepare physical or technical aspects of radiation treatment plans, using information about patient condition and anatomy (99% of the task's time now); Maintain records, reports, or files as required, including such information as radiation dosages, equipment settings, or patients' reactions (100% of the task's time now); and Act as liaison with physicist and supportive care personnel (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Radiation Therapists stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Prepare or construct equipment, such as immobilization, treatment, or protection devices; Conduct most treatment sessions independently, in accordance with the long-term treatment plan and under the general direction of the patient's physician; and Administer prescribed doses of radiation to specific body parts, using radiation therapy equipment according to established practices and standards. Together such tasks are about 71% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Radiation Therapists?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Radiation Therapists?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 62% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 46% of the working time, 19% in a structured facility. Its index is 0.65 of 3. One example: CyberKnife (with RoboCouch Patient Positioning System) for "administer prescribed doses of radiation to specific body parts, using radiation therapy equipment according to established practices and standards". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 22 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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