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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Occupational Therapists?
Task-level automation exposure for Occupational Therapists: 17 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
40%
weighted task index
17 of 17 tasks scored
Median Salary
$100,330 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
High
162,450 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+14.8%
employment change
10,000 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 52 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$51,850 – $124,510
Highest medians
California $124,510
Oregon $112,310
Nevada $110,520
District of Columbia $109,170
Washington $107,670
Lowest medians
Puerto Rico $51,850
North Dakota $83,200
New Hampshire $83,900
Maine $84,310
South Dakota $85,050
State figures come from the 29-1122 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 40%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 12%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 66%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 14%
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 5/100
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
17 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) 8%
1 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 61%
10 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 31%
6 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 →Emerging & rewritten tasks
Tasks O*NET added or rewrote for this occupation in its recent updates (05/2025 – 08/2026), with who proposed them. Additions are not in the scored task inventory — they are new work O*NET is still measuring, so they appear here and nowhere in the index. A Revision replaces a task that is scored, which is why only those move the "Rewritten by O*NET" share.
- New 08/2021 · Occupational Expert
Recommend adaptive equipment to individuals to increase independence in daily living activities.
Constituent Tasks
#349 · Core · 50% automatable
Test and evaluate patients' physical and mental abilities and analyze medical data to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients.
decision support — Treatment goals need clinical accountability and context
Evaluate patient functioning, capabilities, or health. Analyze patient data to determine patient needs or treatment goals.
#347 · Core · 62% automatable
Complete and maintain necessary records.
interpersonal — Patient history requires live elicitation and judgment
Record patient medical histories.
#351 · Core · 35% automatable
Plan, organize, and conduct occupational therapy programs in hospital, institutional, or community settings to help rehabilitate persons with disabilities because of illness, injury or psychological or developmental problems.
decision support — Drafts health program design; implementation and buy-in human
Design public or employee health programs. Direct healthcare delivery programs.
#358 · Core · 45% automatable
Plan and implement programs and social activities to help patients learn work or school skills and adjust to handicaps.
decision support — Draft non-medical plans; clinician validates and owns
Develop treatment plans that use non-medical therapies.
#350 · Core · 45% automatable
Select activities that will help individuals learn work and life-management skills within limits of their mental or physical capabilities.
decision support — Draft non-medical plans; clinician validates and owns
Develop treatment plans that use non-medical therapies.
#348 · Core · 52% automatable
Evaluate patients' progress and prepare reports that detail progress.
text generation — Summarize diagnostic and care activities into reports
Monitor patient progress or responses to treatments. Prepare reports summarizing patient diagnostic or care activities.
#15231 · Core · 32% automatable
Train caregivers in providing for the needs of a patient during and after therapy.
interpersonal — Caregiver training needs live modeling and supervision
Train caregivers or other non-medical personnel.
#359 · Core · 12% automatable
Lay out materials such as puzzles, scissors and eating utensils for use in therapy, and clean and repair these tools after therapy sessions.
physical manipulation — Physical assembly of medical supplies
Clean medical equipment or facilities. Prepare medical supplies or equipment for use.
#353 · Core · 40% automatable
Consult with rehabilitation team to select activity programs or coordinate occupational therapy with other therapeutic activities.
interpersonal — Treatment planning collaboration is accountable clinical work
Collaborate with healthcare professionals to plan or provide treatment.
#357 · Core · 19% automatable
Design and create, or requisition, special supplies and equipment, such as splints, braces, and computer-aided adaptive equipment.
decision support — AI assists concepts; device design requires regulatory and physical testing
Design medical devices or appliances. Fabricate medical devices.
#352 · Core · 55% automatable
Recommend changes in patients' work or living environments, consistent with their needs and capabilities.
decision support — Wellness advice needs tailoring and clinical accountability
Provide health and wellness advice to patients, program participants, or caregivers.
#355 · Core · 48% automatable
Develop and participate in health promotion programs, group activities, or discussions to promote client health, facilitate social adjustment, alleviate stress, and prevent physical or mental disability.
decision support — Drafts health program design; implementation and buy-in human
Design public or employee health programs.
#356 · Core · 28% automatable
Provide training and supervision in therapy techniques and objectives for students or nurses and other medical staff.
interpersonal — Provider training is clinical, hands-on, accountable
Train medical providers. Supervise patient care personnel.
#354 · Core · 18% automatable
Help clients improve decision making, abstract reasoning, memory, sequencing, coordination, and perceptual skills, using computer programs.
interpersonal — Coordinating real-world daily life details with client
Assist clients in handling details of daily life. Assist patients with daily activities.
#361 · Core · 40% automatable
Conduct research in occupational therapy.
information retrieval — Literature review aided; wet-lab and clinical research human
Conduct research to increase knowledge about medical issues.
#360 · Core · 55% automatable
Advise on health risks in the workplace or on health-related transition to retirement.
decision support — Drafts guidance; community trust and liability human
Advise communities or institutions regarding health or safety issues.
#362 · Supplemental · 20% automatable
Provide patients with assistance in locating or holding jobs.
interpersonal — Encouraging life-skill development is relational, sustained human work
Encourage patients or clients to develop life skills.
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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
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