Top 5 Jobs in Healthcare That Are Most at Risk from AI in Viet Nam - And How to Adapt

Vietnam's healthcare system is racing into a digitally driven era - spurred by forums such as HIF 2025 and a vigorous National Health Digital Transformation Program that are rolling out electronic medical records, telemedicine, and AI imaging across public hospitals (Healthcare Summit 2025: Vietnam National Health Digital Transformation Program coverage); diagnostics tools from local players and AI labs are already in use in hundreds of facilities, while national strategy and investment position Vietnam as an emerging AI leader (Analysis: State of AI in Vietnam (2025)).

The upside is faster, more accurate care for a country whose population is ageing rapidly (projected 25% by 2040); the downside is clear: routine administrative and image-reading roles face displacement unless workers pivot to oversight, data curation, and AI-assisted clinical workflows.

Practical, workplace-focused reskilling - such as Nucamp's Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp - can help clinicians and staff turn automation from a threat into a productivity multiplier, preserving patient trust while upgrading careers.

Investing in healthcare is, ultimately, investing in Vietnam's most valuable asset – its people.

Selection started with evidence, not guesswork: jobs were ranked by how quickly their core tasks are being digitised in Việt Nam, how repetitive or rule-based the work is, and how viable reskilling paths are for affected staff.

Priority went to roles hit hardest by the country's electronic health records rollout and smartphone-linked services - Bach Mai Hospital's EMR move and the VNeID uptake show scale - and to functions where AI tools are already proven, such as imaging and documentation.

Sources shaped the cut: the national push to centralise patient data and the real-world friction of transfers and paperwork informed the “human cost” filter (one patient still faces a 2.5‑hour bus ride for specialist care), while global adoption and efficiency metrics for automation and AI (from clinical documentation to diagnostic imaging) signalled which tasks can be automated fastest.

Practicality mattered: administrative burden, high-volume image reading, and repeatable lab or dispensing steps scored highest, and the final list favoured jobs where short, targeted reskilling can shift workers into oversight, AI‑assisted workflows, or data‑curation roles - turning displacement risk into a clear training roadmap.

Read more on the electronic health records rollout in Vietnam and the broader trend in AI automation in healthcare.

“With the number of illnesses I have, if I didn't have insurance, I think I would die.”

Medical transcriptionists in Việt Nam are squarely in the crosshairs of automation: expanding telehealth, EHR rollouts, and the rise of EHR‑integrated speech recognition are turning hours of verbatim typing into something machines can do faster and cheaper, while global outsourcing trends push routine documentation offshore or into vendor platforms (Vietnam healthcare outsourcing trends 2025).

The market data backs this up - transcription tools and services are a fast‑growing segment of the wider medical transcription market, driven by software and AI platforms that promise to cut admin time and billing delays (medical transcription market forecast).

That makes pivoting essential: move from raw typing to high‑value roles - clinical documentation specialist, quality‑assurance reviewer for AI outputs, or EHR data curator - where human judgment, coding nuance, and patient‑privacy oversight matter.

A vivid test: when automated transcription turns a 30‑minute consult into a near‑complete draft, the difference that saves a clinician is the human who fixes context, flags red flags, and ensures billing codes are correct - a small switch in duties that preserves jobs while boosting clinic throughput (automated clinical transcription in Vietnam).

Radiology technicians in Việt Nam face fast-moving change as AI moves from niche tools to everyday workflow helpers - automating protocol selection, improving patient positioning, cutting dose and accelerating post‑processing - so the console is as much a control room as a camera operator's station; detailed guidance on how AI touches pre‑examination assessment, acquisition and image processing helps explain why technicians must shift into oversight and multimodality roles (Integration of AI in Radiology and the Radiographer's Evolving Role).

Cloud‑native platforms and remote collaboration stacks promise to bring specialist reads to provincial hospitals and let a patient in the countryside get an expert second look without another long trip - DeepHealth even sketches a workflow where an AI breast readout could be available in under five minutes - so practical reskilling matters now (Future Trends in AI-Powered Radiology).

Clear, short training paths - AI‑operator/technologist for protocol‑automation, QA reviewer for algorithm outputs, and patient‑facing consent and communication leads - turn displacement risk into new, higher‑value jobs; a vivid test: when an algorithm flags a subtle lung nodule, it's the technologist who confirms positioning, validates the AI call, and arranges urgent referral - human judgment that preserves patient safety while increasing throughput.

Practical upskilling (cross‑modality competence, basic AI literacy, and QA procedures) will let VN radiology teams keep care local, faster, and safer, rather than being sidelined by automation (AI Triage and Workflow Tools for Radiology).

Pharmacy technicians in Việt Nam are squarely in the technology transition: automated dispensing systems and robotics now do the repetitive counting, sorting and labelling that once filled entire shifts, while EHR‑linked medication management and telepharmacy platforms route prescriptions and flags faster than manual checks - so the immediate risk is to routine dispensing work, not to the profession itself.

The smart response is a shift toward oversight and clinical support roles - operating and validating automated dispensers, running medication‑therapy management (MTM) clinics, troubleshooting barcode/EHR mismatches, and owning patient communications and adherence programs - skills highlighted in coverage of automated dispensing systems and workflow automation (automated dispensing systems and workflow automation in pharmacy).

In Việt Nam's crowded pharmacies and provincial hospitals, that human-on-the-loop role preserves safety: technicians who can read an AI alert, confirm a dose, and counsel a worried elderly patient add clear, immediate value.

Practical training in pharmacy informatics, telepharmacy workflows, and regulatory/compliance procedures will convert perceived risk into career uplift - aligned with local AI adoption and efficiency gains in Vietnam's health sector (AI adoption improving healthcare efficiency in Việt Nam), and underpinned by the core tech literacy recommended for modern technicians (EHRs, robotics, and medication management technologies).

“Technology is central to the work of pharmacy technicians. Technicians use systems for order entry and prescription processing, inventory management and insurance billing,” said Zachary Green, CPhT.

Medical laboratory technicians in Việt Nam are on the front line of a global shift: automation and AI are now the top predicted lab trends for 2025, promising to shave repetitive tasks out of daily work and push technologists toward higher‑value roles (automation and AI lab trends in 2025).

Robots and liquid‑handling systems can turn what used to be a morning of manual pipetting into an automated run, freeing staff to focus on quality control, molecular assays, and interpreting complex results - skills that local hospitals and private labs will value as they scale services.

Cloud LIMS, IoMT connectivity and point‑of‑care expansion mean VN labs can link decentralized testing back to central teams for oversight, while mass spectrometry and NGS create demand for specialized technicians rather than repetitive sample processors (modular automation and AI in lab workflows).

For Vietnamese technicians, pragmatic reskilling - basic AI literacy, LIS/LIMS operation, and QA for automated lines - turns displacement risk into a clear career ladder that keeps diagnostics fast, accurate, and local (AI for faster diagnostics in hospitals).

“As we move forward, it is essential to continue fostering collaboration and investing in new technologies to ensure that clinical laboratories remain at the cutting edge of medical diagnostics.”

Medical records clerks in Việt Nam are facing rapid change as a national push aims to fully digitize medical records by 2025, turning cabinets of paper into EHR workflows and shifting routine file‑retrieval work into system administration and data governance roles - Xenia Tech outlines these 2025 digitization goals and the core EMR benefits such as faster, secure access (Xenia Tech 2025 digitization goals for Vietnam healthcare).

The legal and operational landscape is already complex: Circular 46/2018, recent health laws, and Decree 13/2023 on personal data protection set standards while FPT IS documents why many hospitals struggle (weak infrastructure, extra data‑entry burdens, and by end‑2023 only about fifty hospitals had moved to EMR), explaining why clerks need clear transition paths (FPT IS analysis of EMR implementation challenges in hospitals).

Practical pivots include roles in EHR data curation, privacy/compliance oversight, and patient-facing digital reception (helping older patients e‑sign forms, manage online appointments and QR payments), while AI documentation tools that cut note time by up to ~60% free staff for quality control and exception handling - turning a paper chase into a higher‑value verification job (AgileTech AI automation in healthcare benefits).

The result: fewer lost files and shorter waits, but only if investment in training, cloud infrastructure and security keeps pace.

Vietnam's path forward is clear: scale training, align infrastructure, and focus on practical reskilling so workers keep control of care - not the machines. National initiatives already aim to train roughly 15,000 healthcare professionals in digital literacy and AI by 2026 (Vietnam Ministry of Health AI training plan to train 15,000 healthcare workers by 2026), while VietHealth's AI Opportunities for Healthcare Professionals rollout uses a tight, applied curriculum - mindset, skillset, toolset - to teach clinicians when and how to verify AI outputs and reclaim hours back for patients (VietHealth AI Opportunities for Healthcare Professionals project coverage by VOV).

For busy staff the most useful moves are short, job-focused steps: foundational AI literacy, prompt-writing and practical tool use, plus role-specific tracks (AI QA, data curation, LIMS operation, pharmacy informatics).

Employers and policymakers must pair training with better connectivity and governance so upskilling converts into safer, faster care; for workplace-ready AI skills, targeted programs such as Nucamp's Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp offer a hands-on bridge from theory to on‑the‑job practice.

“Some tasks that once took two or three hours can be finished in half an hour.”

“VietHealth's course is structured around three pillars: mindset, skillset, and toolset. First, we focus on mindset, helping healthcare workers understand and approach AI with an open, informed perspective. This is foundational for everyone, regardless of role.”