Job Check
Massage Therapists
Perform therapeutic massages of soft tissues and joints. May assist in the assessment of range of motion and muscle strength, or propose client therapy plans.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Massage and knead muscles and soft tissues of the body to provide treatment for medical conditions, injuries, or wellness maintenance.Mostly human for now
- 02Apply finger and hand pressure to specific points of the body.Mostly human for now
- 03Confer with clients about their medical histories and problems with stress or pain to determine how massage will be most helpful.Mostly human for now
- 04Maintain massage areas by restocking supplies or sanitizing equipment.Mostly human for now
- 05Treat clients in professional settings or travel to clients' offices and homes.Mostly human for now
- 06Develop and propose client treatment plans that specify which types of massage are to be used.Mostly human for now
- 07Provide clients with guidance and information about techniques for postural improvement and stretching, strengthening, relaxation, and rehabilitative exercises.Mostly human for now
- 08Maintain treatment records.AI could speed this up a lot
- 09Assess clients' soft tissue condition, joint quality and function, muscle strength, and range of motion.Mostly human for now
- 10Refer clients to other types of therapists when necessary.Mostly human for now
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
7%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 2% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Above 53% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Massage and knead muscles and soft tissues of the body to provide treatment for medical conditions, injuries, or wellness maintenance.
- Apply finger and hand pressure to specific points of the body.
- Confer with clients about their medical histories and problems with stress or pain to determine how massage will be most helpful.