Set up, clean, and maintain laboratory equipment.

“Set up, clean, and maintain laboratory equipment.” is a core task performed by Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists. Among the occupation's 16 rated tasks, workers place it 11th by importance (#6 most important). About 98% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Clean medical equipment or facilities. in Performing General Physical Activities
• Prepare medical equipment or work areas for use. in Handling and Moving Objects
• Maintain medical equipment or instruments. in Repairing and Maintaining Mechanical Equipment

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Analyze samples of biological material for chemical content or reaction. · importance 4.8
• Analyze laboratory findings to check the accuracy of the results. · importance 4.8
• Conduct chemical analysis of body fluids, including blood, urine, or spinal fluid, to determine presence of normal or abnormal components. · importance 4.8
• Enter data from analysis of medical tests or clinical results into computer for storage. · importance 4.8
• Collect and study blood samples to determine the number of cells, their morphology, or their blood group, blood type, or compatibility for transfusion purposes, using microscopic techniques. · importance 4.7
• Operate, calibrate, or maintain equipment used in quantitative or qualitative analysis, such as spectrophotometers, calorimeters, flame photometers, or computer-controlled analyzers. · importance 4.7
• Establish or monitor quality assurance programs or activities to ensure the accuracy of laboratory results. · importance 4.7
• Supervise, train, or direct lab assistants, medical and clinical laboratory technicians or technologists, or other medical laboratory workers engaged in laboratory testing. · importance 4.7
• Select and prepare specimens and media for cell cultures, using aseptic technique and knowledge of medium components and cell requirements. · importance 4.6
• Obtain, cut, stain, and mount biological material on slides for microscopic study and diagnosis, following standard laboratory procedures. · importance 4.5
• Cultivate, isolate, or assist in identifying microbial organisms or perform various tests on these microorganisms. · importance 4.5
• Provide technical information about test results to physicians, family members, or researchers. · importance 4.3
• Develop, standardize, evaluate, or modify procedures, techniques, or tests used in the analysis of specimens or in medical laboratory experiments. · importance 4.3
• Harvest cell cultures at optimum time, based on knowledge of cell cycle differences and culture conditions. · importance 4.0

See all tasks on the Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-1892,
  title  = {Set up, clean, and maintain laboratory equipment.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-1892}
}