Sonographer
AI displacement risk
7%
Range 4.79–9.71%
Sonographer has 25% AI task overlap and 57% human bottleneck protection — lower risk than 69% of occupations in the live market. Current AI capabilities have limited overlap with core tasks.
Associate Professionals & Technicians·SGD 5,200/mo (3,950–8,247)·~1.5K workers in SG·Updated 2026-06-11
Structural pressure, not a prediction of job loss. Displacement tends to arrive through slower hiring, wage compression and role redesign before layoffs.
Why This Score
25% of tasks overlap with current AI
57% human advantage from judgment & presence
59% demand buffer from the local labour market
AI usage 10pp below theoretical exposure
These factors interact with each other — the final score is not a simple sum of these bars.
How much AI overlaps with this job's tasks, offset by human advantages and local demand. How this works
Tasks AI can handle
With 25% AI task overlap (based on Felten AIOE, Anthropic Economic Index, Eloundou GPT exposure, and ILO occupational exposure), the Sonographer tasks most exposed include: diagnostic pattern recognition, medical literature synthesis, appointment scheduling, patient record summarization, and drug interaction checking.
- • Observe screen during scan to ensure that image produced is satisfactory for diagnostic purposes, making adjustments to equipment as required.
- • Observe and care for patients throughout examinations to ensure their safety and comfort.
- • Provide sonogram and oral or written summary of technical findings to physician for use in medical diagnosis.
O*NET tasks for this occupation with the most observed AI usage (Anthropic task data).
What AI can't do here
At 57% human bottleneck protection, the tasks that remain hardest to automate for Sonographer include: patient examination, clinical judgment under uncertainty, empathetic communication, emergency decision-making, and informed consent processes.
Main insulation channels: High-stakes decisions + Non-routine work — the work-context dimensions behind this occupation's human bottleneck.
Skills to focus on
Sources: Felten AIOE (2021), Anthropic Economic Index (2026), Eloundou GPT Exposure (Science, 2024), ILO GenAI (2025), Pizzinelli et al. bottleneck model. Full methodology.
Singapore Now
Current labour market conditions and how they affect this role.
Cooling, but not collapsing. Vacancies and re-entry are softer, yet retrenchment remains low and hiring still exceeds resignations.
Vacancy
3.1%
↓ 3.1% YoY
Hiring
1.5%
vs 0.9% resign
Retrenchment
1.5
per 1,000 · low
Re-entry
67.7%
find work in 12mo· -5.3pp
Professionals, Managers, Executives & Technicians · 2025 Q4
Top Industries
Industry vacancy overlays use the latest published detailed cross-tab, which can lag the main labour monitor.
What You Can Do
Sonographer has some offset potential, but it depends on task redesign holding up in practice and on workers clearing the main switching frictions.
Published transition support
Related roles you could transition to
Similarity-basedCompare within Associate Professionals & Technicians
See how this compares to similar occupations
Compare with... →Classification
Higher risk than 31% of occupations · V7 structural score
Raw scores
AIOE -0.323 · θ 0.684 · C-AIOE -0.259
Stability
stable · Optimistic 6% · Pessimistic 10%
Score range (best/worst case)
Exposure 17–33% · Net risk 4.79–9.71%
Scoring basis
V7 structural score. Uses task-concentration-weighted exposure, human bottleneck, and demand resilience. V6 baseline fields are retained for release-to-release comparison.-0.6pp versus retained V6 baseline.
Wage range (SGD/mo)
25th 3,950 · Median 5,200 · 75th 8,247
Evidence & sources
Data matching
direct · SSOC 32111
Real-world AI usage: -10% vs estimated
Data quality
72% · Matching 0.53 · Market data 0.70 · Freshness 0.84
100% weighted task match · 0% effective coverage
AI overlap by data source
Weights: aioe 24% · anthropic 26% · eloundou 25% · ilo 26%
Conflicting data signals
Tools & offset factors
What could slow it down
- Current demand support is thin, so offsets may take longer to show up.
Worker profile & local context
- Vacancy rate is 3.1% and was essentially flat versus last quarter.
- Hiring read: recruitment is running above resignation (1.5% vs 0.9%).
- Retrenchment was low at 1.5 per 1,000 employees.
- 67.7% of retrenched workers re-entered employment within 12 months.
Worker profile
Gender mix
33% male / 67% femalePublished Singapore worker composition for the detailed occupation family 32 Health Associate Professionals.
Employment structure
Employee-heavy87% employees, 13% employers or self-employed workers.
Work arrangement
Mostly full-time9% part-time and 91% full-time in 2025.
Age profile
Mid-career heavy17% aged 15 to 29, 52% aged 30 to 49, and 31% aged 50 or older.
Qualification mix
Diploma-heavyDegree 37%; Diploma / professional qualification 35%.
Where this work is concentrated
Top planning areas
Jurong West, Woodlands, Tampines22% of workers in this occupation group live in these three planning areas.
Residential concentration
Moderately clustered35% live across the top five planning areas in the 2020 Census.
Commute pattern
Longer commutesEstimated average commute 38.7 minutes. 36% take 46 minutes or more.
Role profile
How this role's work breaks down across key dimensions. This is a general profile, not an individual measurement.
Workflow dimensions (0 = low, 1 = high)
How this changes by career stage
Senior workers benefit from institutional knowledge and judgment that AI cannot replicate. Entry-level roles have higher task overlap with AI.
Frequently asked questions
Will AI replace Sonographer?
Sonographer has 25% AI task overlap and 57% human bottleneck protection — lower risk than 69% of occupations in the live market. Current AI capabilities have limited overlap with core tasks. Net displacement risk: 7% (Low). Median wage: SGD 5,200/month.
What is the AI risk score for Sonographer?
Sonographer has an AI displacement risk of 7%, rated Low. AI task overlap: 25%. Human advantage: 57%. Local demand buffer: 59%.
What career transitions are available for Sonographer?
Sonographer has modeled transition pathways to related occupations. The strongest adjacent pathway is Medical X-ray technician, based on skill and wage similarity (model-estimated). Transition scoring accounts for wage preservation, training ease, and destination quality.
How does Sonographer salary compare in the live market?
Sonographer earns a median gross wage of SGD 5,200/month in the live market (25th-75th percentile: SGD 3,950-8,247). This is 16% above median across all 562 scored occupations, and 26% above group median within Associate Professionals & Technicians occupations.