Forensic Entomologist

Forensic entomologists use the insects found on and around a body to help estimate how long ago someone died. The work means collecting insects at a scene, identifying the species, working out how far they have developed, and explaining the findings in court. It is a tiny field: the American Board of Forensic Entomology, which certifies practitioners in North America, lists 12 active diplomates, its top level of certification, and 11 of them list a university as their workplace.

AI is getting good at one core step: telling species apart. Identifying fly maggots to species is "difficult, time consuming, and requires specialized taxonomic training," according to a 2022 study in Scientific Reports, which trained an AI model to identify four forensically important fly species from microscope images. A 2024 study in PLOS One classified adult flies with over 99% accuracy and noted "a shortage of specialists." These were lab tests on a handful of species, not real cases, but they aim at the specialist skill this job is built on.

The rest of the job stays human: the scene work, the judgment about what the insects mean in a particular case, and testifying in court. The closest government job category, forensic science technicians, is projected by BLS to grow 13% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average; it covers crime-lab work in general, not insects. We are raising this from 1 to 2: AI can now do part of the identification work, but it helps a field that already has too few experts rather than replacing them. For a new graduate the size of the field is the bigger challenge.

What would change this score. If courts start accepting AI species identification with little expert review, or investigators use it instead of calling in a specialist, this goes to 3.