RetrainMap / Pivot Audits / Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants

The Pivot Audit · verified 2026-08-15

Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants: an honest AI-exposure audit

Perform secretarial duties using specific knowledge of medical terminology and hospital, clinic, or laboratory procedures. Duties may include scheduling appointments, billing patients, and compiling and recording medical charts, reports, and correspondence.

How to read this page (the honest frame)
850,000
employed, US (2024) — BLS via O*NET OnLine, fetched 2026-08-15
$45,930
median annual wage (2025) — BLS OEWS via O*NET OnLine
Average (3% to 4%)
BLS projected employment change 2024–34 · projected openings/yr: 85,900
83rd
AI-exposure percentile, of 774 scored occupations — Felten–Raj–Seamans AIOE (2021 index)

The sources disagree — read this before the score scares you. The AIOE index puts this occupation at the 83rd exposure percentile, yet BLS projects “Average (3% to 4%)” employment change for 2024–34. Both are published numbers from serious sources; neither is a prediction about your job. A product that shows you only the scary one is selling, not informing.

USAGE

What the AI-usage data actually shows

#374
usage rank of 718 published occupations, by share of observed Claude usage matching this occupation's tasks
0.01%
of observed usage matches tasks commonly done in this occupation
28/72
augmentation vs automation split of those conversations, %

Read this correctly: it measures how often tasks like this occupation's appear in Claude conversations — not how many members of the occupation use AI; “augmentation vs automation” describes conversation styles, not job outcomes. Snapshot of period 2026-05-01; no trend exists. Source: Anthropic Economic Index (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 2026-08-15. The dataset's own instruction: it “cannot ground advice on career choices in either direction.”

AUDIT

What the “related occupations” pivot list really offers

Pivot tools — free and paid — typically recommend O*NET's related occupations for your job. Here is that exact list for Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, with each occupation's AI-exposure percentile attached. Judge the escape value yourself.

1 of the 16 scored “related occupations” sit below the median of AI exposure — a thin list, and thinner than pivot-tool marketing implies. Check the wage on each before calling it an escape.

4 of the 20 related occupations carry no AIOE score (2018-SOC codes newer than the index) — an honest gap, labeled in the table.

#Related occupation (O*NET 30.3)AI-exposure percentile (AIOE)
1Receptionists and Information Clerks75th
2Medical Records Specialistsnot scored
3Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive78th
4Office Clerks, General74th
5Medical Assistants55th
6Patient Representatives44th — below median
7Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants78th
8Medical Transcriptionists78th
9Customer Service Representatives73rd
10Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks84th
11Medical and Health Services Managers85th
12Administrative Services Managersnot scored
13First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers76th
14Interviewers, Except Eligibility and Loan88th
15Human Resources Assistants, Except Payroll and Timekeeping93rd
16Pharmacy Technicians51st
17Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs84th
18Health Information Technologists and Medical Registrarsnot scored
19Billing and Posting Clerks90th
20Emergency Medicine Physiciansnot scored

Computed 2026-08-15 from O*NET 30.3 “Related Occupations” × AIOE percentiles (average-rank method; full method in the source ledger). Across all 782 scoreable occupations, an occupation's exposure percentile and its related occupations' mean exposure percentile correlate at r = 0.907; 122 of 192 top-quartile-exposed occupations (63.5%) have zero related occupations below median exposure. “Skills-adjacent and AI-safe” is a near-empty set for exactly the people searching for it.

ROUTES

The routes that actually change the number

In the data, pivots that genuinely reduce exposure are mostly job-zone jumps into hands-on work — retraining, not adjacency. That has real costs and real prices, so here they are, from the institutions' own pages. Routes below are the nearest-by-wage destinations from our audited library (exposure ≤ 60th percentile).

Medical Assistants

$45,690 median wage 2025 Much faster than average (7%+) · BLS 2024–34 −$240 vs this occupation's median

AIOE exposure: 55th percentile of 774 scored occupations · employment (2024): 811,000 · wage/outlook: BLS via O*NET OnLine, fetched 2026-08-15

What training costs (published prices, dated):

  • Brookdale Community College (NJ) Medical Assistant certificate — $8,999 including the NHA certification exam fee; textbook extra (brookdalecc.edu, verified 2026-08-15)

Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers

$58,640 median wage 2025 Average (3% to 4%) · BLS 2024–34 +$12,710 vs this occupation's median

AIOE exposure: 14th percentile of 774 scored occupations · employment (2024): 2,235,100 · wage/outlook: BLS via O*NET OnLine, fetched 2026-08-15

What training costs (published prices, dated):

  • Johnston Community College (NC) Truck Driver Training — $1,270.28 total estimated cost including tuition, fees, and supplies (johnstoncc.edu, verified 2026-08-15). Community-college CDL programs we checked today ranged $1,200–$5,750

Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers

$61,010 median wage 2025 Much faster than average (7%+) · BLS 2024–34 +$15,080 vs this occupation's median

AIOE exposure: 26th percentile of 774 scored occupations · employment (2024): 425,200 · wage/outlook: BLS via O*NET OnLine, fetched 2026-08-15

What training costs (published prices, dated):

  • GateWay Community College (AZ) HVAC Residential Installation & Service certificate — est. $5,330 tuition, lab, and estimated book fees (AAS route: $7,175) (gatewaycc.edu, verified 2026-08-15)

Funding: training toward routes like these can be WIOA-fundable for eligible adults and dislocated workers — eligibility is determined at your local American Job Center (find yours); state Eligible Training Provider Lists name the approved programs. Registered apprenticeships are searchable at apprenticeship.gov.

The full report for Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants — $29, one-time

This free audit shows the shape. The paid report builds your priced menu: every evidenced route out of Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants with published program costs near you, earnings records where they exist (College Scorecard field-of-study / Census PSEO), apprenticeship and WIOA funding pointers, the credential ladder, and the same honest exposure read — every figure sourced and dated. No score theater, no “safe jobs” list the data cannot support.

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Sources for this page