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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Occupational Therapy Aides?
Task-level automation exposure for Occupational Therapy Aides: 15 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
29%
weighted task index
15 of 15 tasks scored
Median Salary
$39,160 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Low
4,310 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+3.6%
employment change
600 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 27 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$24,300 – $66,190
Highest medians
North Carolina $66,190
New York $46,220
Washington $45,890
Nebraska $44,980
Connecticut $44,840
Lowest medians
Mississippi $24,300
Tennessee $27,840
Louisiana $28,560
South Carolina $31,950
Idaho $32,590
State figures come from the 31-2012 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 29%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 32%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 42%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 23%
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 32/100
Moderate
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
15 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%) 22%
3 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 70%
11 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 08/2020 · Incumbent
Sanitize equipment.
Constituent Tasks
#9398 · Core · 18% automatable
Encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals.
interpersonal — Live emotional encouragement of patients is human presence
Encourage patients during therapeutic activities.
#9399 · Core · 60% automatable
Report to supervisors or therapists, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, attendance, and accomplishments.
text generation — Draft medical reports from structured findings
Prepare medical reports or documents. Communicate patient status to other health practitioners.
#9400 · Core · 59% automatable
Observe patients' attendance, progress, attitudes, and accomplishments and record and maintain information in client records.
data analysis — Maintain records; human owns clinical accuracy
Monitor patient progress or responses to treatments. Record vital statistics or other health information. Maintain medical records.
#9403 · Core · 25% automatable
Prepare and maintain work area, materials, and equipment and maintain inventory of treatment and educational supplies.
data analysis — Records trackable; physical verification of medical stock human
Prepare patient treatment areas for use. Maintain medical equipment or instruments. Inventory medical supplies or equipment.
#9409 · Core · 4% automatable
Transport patients to and from the occupational therapy work area.
physical manipulation — Moving patients requires hands-on body handling
Move patients to or from treatment areas.
#9404 · Core · 29% automatable
Instruct patients and families in work, social, and living skills, the care and use of adaptive equipment, and other skills to facilitate home and work adjustment to disability.
interpersonal — Hands-on adaptive skill teaching with real people
Teach basic living or other adaptive skills to patients or caregivers. Teach medical procedures or medical equipment use to patients.
#9406 · Core · 20% automatable
Assist occupational therapists in planning, implementing, and administering therapy programs to restore, reinforce, and enhance performance, using selected activities and special equipment.
interpersonal — Implementing therapy programs is hands-on clinical work
Implement therapeutic programs to improve patient functioning.
#9408 · Core · 30% automatable
Demonstrate therapy techniques, such as manual and creative arts and games.
interpersonal — Medical procedure teaching is hands-on clinical instruction
Teach medical procedures to healthcare personnel.
#9401 · Core · 38% automatable
Manage intradepartmental infection control and equipment security.
visual inspection — AI reviews records; human observes physical procedures
Monitor work areas or procedures to ensure compliance with safety procedures. Manage control system activities in organizations.
#9407 · Core · 44% automatable
Perform clerical, administrative, and secretarial duties, such as answering phones, restocking and ordering supplies, filling out paperwork, and scheduling appointments.
decision support — Clinical scheduling needs human verification of constraints
Schedule patient procedures or appointments. Stock medical or patient care supplies. Perform clerical work in medical settings.
#9405 · Core · 15% automatable
Supervise patients in choosing and completing work assignments or arts and crafts projects.
physical manipulation — Engaging patients in exercise is physical, in-person care
Engage patients in exercises or activities.
#9410 · Core · 8% automatable
Adjust and repair assistive devices and make adaptive changes to other equipment and to environments.
physical manipulation — Hands-on medical instrument maintenance
Maintain medical equipment or instruments.
#9402 · Supplemental · 30% automatable
Evaluate the living skills and capacities of clients with physical, developmental, or mental health disabilities.
interpersonal — Administering screening tests needs live patient interaction
Administer screening tests to determine abilities or treatment needs.
#9412 · Supplemental · 4% automatable
Accompany patients on outings, providing transportation when necessary.
situated mobility — Hands-on accompaniment and assistance in the world
Accompany patients or clients on outings to provide assistance.
#9411 · Supplemental · 30% automatable
Assist educational specialists or clinical psychologists in administering situational or diagnostic tests to measure client's abilities or progress.
interpersonal — Administering screening tests needs live patient interaction
Administer screening tests to determine abilities or treatment needs.
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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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