Biologists, botanists, zoologists and related professionals
A substantial share of tasks can be sped up or taken over by AI. The content of the job will noticeably change — learning is cheapest now.
Exposure is not job loss: it shows how much of the work generative AI could do today. Whether that turns into transformation, productivity gains or cuts depends on employers, regulation — and on you.
0 = today’s generative AI cannot perform any of the job’s tasks, 100 = it could do all of them fully. The pale band is the spread across tasks.
Work out your own score ↓What can you do?
🤖 Written with AIThis text was written by artificial intelligence from the data points shown; it is built on verified figures but may contain mistakes.· 13/10/2026How is it made?
Exposure score 40/100 indicates augmentation, not job loss. AI will reshape writing, advisory synthesis and study design, while fieldwork and specimen handling remain grounded in human expertise. The broader group outlook is 11.7% growth by 2035.
What changes
- Drafting scientific papers, reports and literature syntheses
- Supporting conservation, climate and pollution advice with evidence summaries
- Assisting experimental design and environmental impact assessment workflows
What stays human
- Collecting and handling organisms and field specimens
- Operating specialised laboratory and field equipment reliably
- Interpreting biological context, anomalies and ecological consequences
What to learn
- Learn reproducible AI-assisted data analysis and scientific writing
- Strengthen experimental design, statistics and model validation
- Build field, laboratory and taxonomic expertise AI cannot independently exercise
Task by task
The ILO scored every task of the occupation separately, as the average of two AI models (GPT-4o and Gemini). The pale band is the range between the two models' scores, the dot the ILO's final score (for a few tasks expert review placed it outside the band).
- Writing scientific papers and reports detailing research and any new findings which are then made available to the scientific community in scientific journals or at conferences for scrutiny and further debate52
- Providing advice to governments, organizations and businesses in areas such as conservation, management of natural resources, the effects of climate change and pollution.50
- Designing and conducting experiments and tests47
- Designing and carrying out environmental impact assessments to identify changes caused by natural or human factors47
- Examining living organisms using a variety of specialised equipment, instruments, technologies and techniques such as electron microscopes, telemetry, global positioning systems, biotechnology, satellite imaging, genetic engineering, digital imaging analysis, polymerase chain reaction and computer modelling35
- Undertaking research in laboratories and in the field to increase scientific knowledge of living organisms; to discover new information; to test hypotheses; to solve problems in areas such as the environment, agriculture and health; and to develop new products, processes and techniques for pharmaceutical, agricultural and environmental use34
- Identifying, classifying, recording and monitoring living organisms and maintaining databases31
- Gathering human, animal, insect and plant specimens and data, and studying their origin, development, chemical and physical form, structure, composition, and life and reproductive processes23
How much does it affect you?
Every job is different: mark which of these tasks you do and how much, and we'll compute your own, time-weighted score.
For each task: I don't do it · sometimes · most of my job.
- Writing scientific papers and reports detailing research and any new findings which are then made available to the scientific community in scientific journals or at conferences for scrutiny and further debate(52)
- Providing advice to governments, organizations and businesses in areas such as conservation, management of natural resources, the effects of climate change and pollution.(50)
- Designing and conducting experiments and tests(47)
- Designing and carrying out environmental impact assessments to identify changes caused by natural or human factors(47)
- Examining living organisms using a variety of specialised equipment, instruments, technologies and techniques such as electron microscopes, telemetry, global positioning systems, biotechnology, satellite imaging, genetic engineering, digital imaging analysis, polymerase chain reaction and computer modelling(35)
- Undertaking research in laboratories and in the field to increase scientific knowledge of living organisms; to discover new information; to test hypotheses; to solve problems in areas such as the environment, agriculture and health; and to develop new products, processes and techniques for pharmaceutical, agricultural and environmental use(34)
- Identifying, classifying, recording and monitoring living organisms and maintaining databases(31)
- Gathering human, animal, insect and plant specimens and data, and studying their origin, development, chemical and physical form, structure, composition, and life and reproductive processes(23)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 40.)
About 25% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Writing scientific papers and reports detailing research and any new findings which are then made available to the scientific community in scientific journals or at conferences for scrutiny and further debate
- • Providing advice to governments, organizations and businesses in areas such as conservation, management of natural resources, the effects of climate change and pollution.
- • Gathering human, animal, insect and plant specimens and data, and studying their origin, development, chemical and physical form, structure, composition, and life and reproductive processes
- • Identifying, classifying, recording and monitoring living organisms and maintaining databases
An estimate from the ILO task scores. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is sent or stored.
How many people work in this occupational group?
Share of the Science and engineering professionals group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Science and engineering professionals |
|---|---|
| Finland | 6.3% · 163 thousand · 2025 |
| Luxembourg | 5.3% · 17 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 4.8% · 135 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 4.7% · 1,380 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 4.5% · 1,920 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 4.5% · 45 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 4.4% · 65 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 4.3% · 428 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 4.3% · 208 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 4.1% · 218 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 4.0% · 20 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 3.9% · 9 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 3.9% · 207 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 3.9% · 121 thousand · 2025 |
| Greece | 3.9% · 169 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 3.9% · 199 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 3.6% · 277 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 3.5% · 1,203 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 3.5% · 163 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 3.5% · 598 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 3.4% · 757 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 3.4% · 176 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 3.3% · 56 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 3.2% · 142 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 3.1% · 91 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 3.1% · 10 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 3.0% · 21 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 3.0% · 78 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 2.9% · 25 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 2.8% · 81 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 2.7% · 659 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Professionals). Eurostat's earnings survey only publishes pay by occupation at 1 digit, so this is the job's broader group. Enterprises with 10+ employees, 2022.
By country, at purchasing power parity (PPS/month), so countries with different price levels can be compared.
- Switzerland6,389
- Luxembourg5,274
- Ireland4,873
- Germany4,807
- Belgium4,799
- Denmark4,446
- Norway4,237
- Austria4,099
- Netherlands4,031
- Iceland3,875
- EU273,850
- France3,791
- Finland3,769
- Romania3,559
- Sweden3,416
- Spain3,413
- Slovenia3,326
- Italy3,305
- Cyprus3,271
- Lithuania3,221
- Croatia2,890
- Czechia2,871
- Malta2,825
- Poland2,783
- Hungary2,777
- Portugal2,755
- Latvia2,671
- Estonia2,599
- Bulgaria2,359
- Slovakia2,345
- Greece2,321
Source: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_21), every four years. The United Kingdom is not covered by the survey.
Outlook to 2035
Employment in the Science and engineering professionals group according to Cedefop's 2026 forecast.
thousand · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · 2026–2035: projection
Replacement demand is the jobs left by people retiring or changing careers — even a shrinking occupation can have many openings.
Related occupations
Sources: ILO WP140 (2025) · Eurostat lfsa_egai2d · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · WEF Future of Jobs 2025 · ESCO. The exposure score measures how much of an occupation's tasks generative AI could perform — not whether the job disappears. For information only, not career advice. How do we calculate this?