Job Check
Occupational Therapy Aides
Under close supervision of an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. These duties include preparing patient and treatment room.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals.Mostly human for now
- 02Report to supervisors or therapists, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, attendance, and accomplishments.AI could speed this up a lot
- 03Observe patients' attendance, progress, attitudes, and accomplishments and record and maintain information in client records.People already use AI for this at work
- 04Prepare and maintain work area, materials, and equipment and maintain inventory of treatment and educational supplies.Mostly human for now
- 05Transport patients to and from the occupational therapy work area.Mostly human for now
- 06Instruct 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.Mostly human for now
- 07Assist occupational therapists in planning, implementing, and administering therapy programs to restore, reinforce, and enhance performance, using selected activities and special equipment.Mostly human for now
- 08Demonstrate therapy techniques, such as manual and creative arts and games.Mostly human for now
- 09Manage intradepartmental infection control and equipment security.Mostly human for now
- 10Perform clerical, administrative, and secretarial duties, such as answering phones, restocking and ordering supplies, filling out paperwork, and scheduling appointments.AI could speed this up a lot
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 loss7%of this job’s work time goes to tasks that people already do with Claude at work, counting tasks where AI only helps as half (2026).Anthropic, 2026
24%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 9% 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 64% 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.
- Encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals.
- Prepare and maintain work area, materials, and equipment and maintain inventory of treatment and educational supplies.
- Transport patients to and from the occupational therapy work area.