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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians?
Task-level automation exposure for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians: 15 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
30%
weighted task index
15 of 15 tasks scored
Median Salary
$265,930 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Very High
342,720 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+3.4%
employment change
9,400 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 51 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$77,430 – $454,550
Highest medians
North Dakota $454,550
Montana $438,850
Maine $419,410
Wisconsin $391,740
Minnesota $367,320
Lowest medians
District of Columbia $77,430
Illinois $132,540
Arkansas $136,880
Michigan $155,480
Puerto Rico $172,230
State figures come from the 29-1229 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 30%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 0%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 34%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 8%
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 36/100
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%) 28%
4 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 64%
10 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 08/2026 · Occupational Expert
Perform diagnostic and therapeutic guided interventions, including injections and ablations.
Constituent Tasks
#17201 · Core · 62% automatable
Document examination results, treatment plans, and patients' outcomes.
interpersonal — Patient history requires live elicitation and judgment
Record patient medical histories.
#17200 · Core · 12% automatable
Examine patients to assess mobility, strength, communication, or cognition.
visual inspection — Patient physical assessment is hands-on clinical work
Examine patients to assess general physical condition.
#17203 · Core · 45% automatable
Develop comprehensive plans for immediate and long-term rehabilitation, including therapeutic exercise, speech and occupational therapy, counseling, cognitive retraining, patient, family or caregiver education, or community reintegration.
decision support — Draft non-medical plans; clinician validates and owns
Develop treatment plans that use non-medical therapies.
#17198 · Core · 29% automatable
Assess characteristics of patients' pain, such as intensity, location, or duration, using standardized clinical measures.
physical manipulation — Physical exam requires hands-on patient contact
Monitor patient conditions during treatments, procedures, or activities. Assess physical conditions of patients to aid in diagnosis or treatment.
#17199 · Core · 35% automatable
Monitor effectiveness of pain management interventions, such as medication or spinal injections.
decision support — AI aids chart review; clinical observation of patient is human
Monitor patient progress or responses to treatments.
#17210 · Core · 15% automatable
Provide inpatient or outpatient medical management of neuromuscular disorders, musculoskeletal trauma, acute and chronic pain, deformity or amputation, cardiac or pulmonary disease, or other disabling conditions.
decision support — Chronic disease management needs clinical judgment
Treat chronic diseases or disorders.
#17206 · Core · 40% automatable
Consult or coordinate with other rehabilitative professionals, including physical and occupational therapists, rehabilitation nurses, speech pathologists, neuropsychologists, behavioral psychologists, social workers, or medical technicians.
interpersonal — Treatment planning collaboration is accountable clinical work
Collaborate with healthcare professionals to plan or provide treatment.
#17209 · Core · 28% automatable
Prescribe orthotic and prosthetic applications and adaptive equipment, such as wheelchairs, bracing, or communication devices, to maximize patient function and self-sufficiency.
decision support — Device prescription needs clinical assessment and accountability
Prescribe assistive medical devices or related treatments.
#17202 · Core · 27% automatable
Diagnose or treat performance-related conditions, such as sports injuries or repetitive-motion injuries.
decision support — AI suggests differentials; clinician examines and owns diagnosis
Diagnose medical conditions. Treat acute illnesses, infections, or injuries.
#17207 · Core · 15% automatable
Perform electrodiagnosis, including electromyography, nerve conduction studies, or somatosensory evoked potentials of neuromuscular disorders or damage.
physical manipulation — Nervous system testing is hands-on clinical exam
Test patient nervous system functioning.
#17205 · Core · 40% automatable
Coordinate physical medicine and rehabilitation services with other medical activities.
interpersonal — Treatment planning collaboration is accountable clinical work
Collaborate with healthcare professionals to plan or provide treatment.
#17204 · Core · 25% automatable
Prescribe physical therapy to relax the muscles and improve strength.
decision support — Prescribing therapy requires licensed clinical accountability
Prescribe treatments or therapies.
#17208 · Core · 25% automatable
Prescribe therapy services, such as electrotherapy, ultrasonography, heat or cold therapy, hydrotherapy, debridement, short-wave or microwave diathermy, and infrared or ultraviolet radiation, to enhance rehabilitation.
decision support — Prescribing therapy requires licensed clinical accountability
Prescribe treatments or therapies.
#17196 · Core · 30% automatable
Instruct interns and residents in the diagnosis and treatment of temporary or permanent physically disabling conditions.
interpersonal — Provider training is clinical, hands-on, accountable
Train medical providers.
#17197 · Core · 12% automatable
Conduct physical tests, such as functional capacity evaluations, to determine injured workers' capabilities to perform the physical demands of their jobs.
visual inspection — Patient physical assessment is hands-on clinical work
Examine patients to assess general physical condition.
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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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