AI Automation Index

Will AI Replace Medical Appliance Technicians?

Task-level automation exposure for Medical Appliance Technicians: 16 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.

E-E-A-T Verified

Developed & audited by Gini Loh

Automation Exposure

21% weighted task index

16 of 16 tasks scored

Median Salary

$48,030 / year

BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation

Employment Level

Low

11,280 people hold this job — size, not growth

Projected 2025–35

+3.5% employment change

1,300 openings a year · BLS line item

Pay by state

BLS OEWS publishes 41 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.

$26,050 – $72,760

Highest medians

Arizona $72,760

Pennsylvania $60,920

Massachusetts $59,810

Colorado $59,560

Virginia $56,260

Lowest medians

Puerto Rico $26,050

Kansas $37,090

Georgia $37,440

Arkansas $39,450

South Carolina $42,230

State figures come from the 51-9082 row in the May 2025 state panel. States where the estimate was suppressed or too small to publish are absent.

What the score is made of

Each task is mapped to its work activities, scored for AI automation potential, and weighted by how important those activities are to the job. These are the components.

Automation potential 21%

Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.

Physical work 65%

Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.

Judgment & influence 5%

Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.

Routine administration 0%

Share in documenting, recording, and administrative activities.

Rewritten by O*NET 0%

Share of weighted tasks O*NET rewrote in a recent update. Reported, not folded into the score.

Consequence of error 2/100 Low

O*NET's own rating of how serious an uncorrectable mistake would be here — respondents, not us. Deliberately not in the index: the score measures what AI can do with the task content, and multiplying it by stakes would be our judgment dressed as data.

Constituent Task Mix

16 tasks for this occupation, weighted by work-activity importance. Shares below are of total task weight, not task count.

High exposure (≥ 60% of the task is automatable) 14%

2 tasks

Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 0%

0 tasks

Low exposure (below 35%) 86%

14 tasks

How would you survive?

Move your week away from the high-exposure tasks and toward the ones that need judgment. The simulator recalculates the index as you shift the mix.

Simulate Upskilling →

Constituent Tasks

#10515 · Core · 8% automatable

Repair, modify, or maintain medical supportive devices, such as artificial limbs, braces, or surgical supports, according to specifications.

physical manipulation — Manual repair of assistive devices

Repair medical or dental assistive devices.

#10524 · Core · 10% automatable

Polish artificial limbs, braces, or supports, using grinding and buffing wheels.

physical manipulation — Grinding requires hands-on control and feel

Polish materials, workpieces, or finished products. Operate grinding equipment.

#10518 · Core · 10% automatable

Construct or receive casts or impressions of patients' torsos or limbs for use as cutting and fabrication patterns.

physical manipulation — Casting molds of patient anatomy is manual lab work

Cast molds of patient anatomies to create medical or dental devices.

#10514 · Core · 80% automatable

Read prescriptions or specifications to determine the type of product or device to be fabricated and the materials and tools required.

information retrieval — Parse specs and materials from orders

Read work orders or other instructions to determine product specifications or materials requirements.

#10513 · Core · 10% automatable

Make orthotic or prosthetic devices, using materials such as thermoplastic and thermosetting materials, metal alloys and leather, and hand or power tools.

physical manipulation — Customized device construction is hands-on fabrication

Construct customized assistive medical or dental devices.

#10519 · Core · 4% automatable

Bend, form, and shape fabric or material to conform to prescribed contours of structural components.

physical manipulation — Adjusting fabric is tactile manual work

Adjust fabrics or other materials during garment production.

#10522 · Core · 18% automatable

Test medical supportive devices for proper alignment, movement, or biomechanical stability, using meters and alignment fixtures.

visual inspection — Physical device inspection requires hands-on access

Inspect medical or dental assistive devices.

#10520 · Core · 9% automatable

Drill and tap holes for rivets, and glue, weld, bolt, or rivet parts together to form prosthetic or orthotic devices.

physical manipulation — Drilling parts requires physical tool operation

Drill holes in parts, equipment, or materials. Operate welding equipment.

#10521 · Core · 8% automatable

Lay out and mark dimensions of parts, using templates and precision measuring instruments.

physical manipulation — Drawing guide lines on materials is hands-on

Draw guide lines or markings on materials or workpieces using patterns or other references.

#10523 · Core · 10% automatable

Cover or pad metal or plastic structures or devices, using coverings such as rubber, leather, felt, plastic, or fiberglass.

physical manipulation — Customized device construction is hands-on fabrication

Construct customized assistive medical or dental devices.

#24060 · Core · 73% automatable

Order parts or supplies for orthotic or prosthetic devices.

decision support — Ordering via systems automatable; human approves spend

Order materials, supplies, or equipment. Order medical supplies or equipment.

#10526 · Core · 11% automatable

Mix pigments to match patients' skin coloring, according to formulas, and apply mixtures to orthotic or prosthetic devices.

physical manipulation — Mixing finishes requires hands-on craft judgment

Mix ingredients to create specific finishes. Apply protective or decorative finishes to workpieces or products.

#10525 · Core · 10% automatable

Service or repair machinery used in the fabrication of appliances.

physical manipulation — Hands-on repair of production machinery

Repair production equipment or tools.

#10517 · Supplemental · 20% automatable

Take patients' body or limb measurements for use in device construction.

physical manipulation — Physical body measurement for fit

Measure clients to ensure proper product fit.

#10516 · Supplemental · 30% automatable

Instruct patients in use of prosthetic or orthotic devices.

interpersonal — Patient assistive-equipment instruction is hands-on care

Instruct patients in the use of assistive equipment.

#10512 · Supplemental · 20% automatable

Fit appliances onto patients, and make any necessary adjustments.

physical manipulation — Physical body measurement for fit

Measure clients to ensure proper product fit.

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Community Sentiment

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Method

How this was scored

1. Tasks. O*NET task statements for this occupation, from a release whose newest record is dated 08/2026.
2. Work activities. Each task maps to 1–5 Detailed Work Activities; each activity belongs to one of 41 Generalized Work Activities that O*NET rates for importance (1–5) in this occupation.
3. Automation potential. Every work activity carries one score for how far current AI can perform it end-to-end. Tasks inherit the mean of their activities.
4. Weighting. Task weight = 0.35 + 0.65 × (importance − 1)/4, scaled by how often the task is performed and by 0.7 for Supplemental tasks. Importance is the task's own O*NET rating where it exists (18,369 of 18,838 tasks); the rest inherit their work activities' importance. The index is the weighted mean.

Check: across the 910 occupations where O*NET also rates how far machine speed sets the pace, this index moves opposite to it (Spearman ρ = -0.49). The more a job is paced by equipment, the less of its task content AI can address — the relationship you would expect if the scoring is working.

Sources · O*NET 31.0 (task records to 08/2026) · BLS OEWS May 2025 · BLS projections 2025-2035 · rubric v2.1 · tasks for O*NET, not a forecast

See the full method →

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