Who's on the clock

Will AI replace data scientists?

Not replace, but it is changing the job. About 35m of an 8-hour shift goes to tasks touched by AI that people use as a helper. The other 7h 25m (93%) stays with people. Separately, BLS expects about 34.6% more of these jobs by 2035 (all jobs: +3.5%).

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Time card for data scientists showing a typical 8-hour shift: 7h 25m done by people, 35m done by people with AI.
Each mark is 5 minutes of a typical shift for data scientists, colored by who does that task today. Estimates from O*NET tasks and Anthropic Economic Index data. How it's made

Develop and implement a set of techniques or analytics applications to transform raw data into meaningful information using data-oriented programming languages and visualization software. Apply data mining, data modeling, natural language processing, and machine learning to extract and analyze information from large structured and unstructured datasets. Visualize, interpret, and report data findings. May create dynamic data reports.

Time card

Untick tasks you don't do, or set your own times.
MineTask, by time spentHumanWith AIAIRobot
Analyze, manipulate, or process large sets of data using statistical software.1h 10m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Clean and manipulate raw data using statistical software.1h 10m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Write new functions or applications in programming languages to conduct analyses.53m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Test, validate, and reformulate models to ensure accurate prediction of outcomes of interest.41m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Create graphs, charts, or other visualizations to convey the results of data analysis using specialized software.35m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Identify relationships and trends or any factors that could affect the results of research.35m a shift · Observed in AI use
Deliver oral or written presentations of the results of mathematical modeling and data analysis to management or other end users.29m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Compare models using statistical performance metrics, such as loss functions or proportion of explained variance.23m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Identify business problems or management objectives that can be addressed through data analysis.23m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Identify solutions to business problems, such as budgeting, staffing, and marketing decisions, using the results of data analysis.23m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Recommend data-driven solutions to key stakeholders.23m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Apply feature selection algorithms to models predicting outcomes of interest, such as sales, attrition, and healthcare use.18m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Read scientific articles, conference papers, or other sources of research to identify emerging analytic trends and technologies.18m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Apply sampling techniques to determine groups to be surveyed or use complete enumeration methods.6m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Design surveys, opinion polls, or other instruments to collect data.6m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found
Propose solutions in engineering, the sciences, and other fields using mathematical theories and techniques.6m a shift · No AI or robot evidence found

On the floor

  1. Rolling outOpenAI
    OpenAI's internal data agent runs analysis for over 3,500 staff

    OpenAI's internal data agent writes and runs SQL, publishes notebooks and reports, and lets people outside the data team run analysis. It has more than 3,500 internal users across about 70,000 datasets.

    OpenAI

Straight answers

Will AI replace data scientists?

Not replace, but it is changing the job. About 35m of an 8-hour shift goes to tasks touched by AI that people use as a helper. The other 7h 25m (93%) stays with people. Separately, BLS expects about 34.6% more of these jobs by 2035 (all jobs: +3.5%).

What parts of the job can AI already do?

AI shows up regularly in 1 of 16 tasks, about 35m of a typical shift. The biggest ones:

  • Identify relationships and trends or any factors that could affect the results of research. (35m a shift, people use AI to help)
What parts of the job are still done by people?

7h 25m of a typical shift, or 93%, goes to tasks with no AI or robot evidence yet. The biggest:

  • Analyze, manipulate, or process large sets of data using statistical software. (1h 10m a shift)
  • Clean and manipulate raw data using statistical software. (1h 10m a shift)
  • Write new functions or applications in programming languages to conduct analyses. (53m a shift)
  • Test, validate, and reformulate models to ensure accurate prediction of outcomes of interest. (41m a shift)
  • Create graphs, charts, or other visualizations to convey the results of data analysis using specialized software. (35m a shift)
What are companies actually doing?

We track 1 sourced company move that affects this job. Most recent:

  • Jan 29, 2026: OpenAI's internal data agent runs analysis for over 3,500 staff (Rolling out)
How much do data scientists make?

The median pay is about $120,230 a year ($57.80 an hour), 136% above the median for all U.S. jobs ($50,980). Source: BLS, May 2025.

Is this job growing or shrinking?

BLS projects growth of 34.6% from 2025 to 2035, compared with 3.5% growth for all jobs. That's about 371,000 jobs in 2035. It expects about 25,000 openings a year, mostly from people retiring or changing careers. These projections don't single out AI as a cause.

How many people do this job?

About 262,000 people in the U.S., roughly 0.17% of all workers (BLS, May 2025).

What do you need to become one?

Bachelor's degree. O*NET rates this job at level 4 of 5 for preparation.

What should I learn to stay ahead?

Based on official skill ratings and the tasks that stay with people:

  • Get strong at the parts of the job that stay with people (listed above), which take 7h 25m of a typical shift
  • Tools employers list: The MathWorks MATLAB, TensorFlow, Tableau, Structured query language SQL, Snowflake
  • Learn to use AI well on the tasks where it already shows up in this job (listed above)
What similar jobs could I move into?

These use similar skills:

  • Statisticians (2h 34m touched, $106k median pay)
  • Statistical Assistants (4h 12m touched, $50k median pay)
  • Financial Quantitative Analysts (4h 14m touched, $81k median pay)
  • Operations Research Analysts (3h 13m touched, $89k median pay)
  • Bioinformatics Scientists (3h 38m touched, $99k median pay)
How solid are these numbers?

Each task carries its own evidence label. For this job: 1 observed in real AI use, 15 with no AI or robot evidence found. The minutes per task are estimates, not measured hours, and "no evidence" doesn't prove a task is safe.

Tools in demand

  • The MathWorks MATLAB
  • TensorFlow
  • Tableau
  • Structured query language SQL
  • Snowflake
  • SAS
  • R
  • PyTorch

Also called

Analytics Consultant, Applied Scientist, Data Analyst, Data Analytic Scientist, Data Analytics Manager, Data Analytics Scientist, Data Analytics Specialist, Data Architect, Data Consultant, Data Economist, Data Engineer, Data Management Scientist, Data Mining Analyst, Data Modeler