Job Check
Physical Therapist Aides
Under close supervision of a physical therapist or physical therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. These duties include preparing the patient and the treatment area.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Clean and organize work area and disinfect equipment after treatment.Mostly human for now
- 02Secure patients into or onto therapy equipment.Mostly human for now
- 03Instruct, motivate, safeguard, or assist patients practicing exercises or functional activities, under direction of medical staff.Mostly human for now
- 04Confer with physical therapy staff or others to discuss and evaluate patient information for planning, modifying, or coordinating treatment.Mostly human for now
- 05Observe patients during treatment to compile and evaluate data on patients' responses and progress and report to physical therapist.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Change linens, such as bed sheets and pillow cases.Mostly human for now
- 07Administer active or passive manual therapeutic exercises, therapeutic massage, or heat, light, sound, water, or electrical modality treatments, such as ultrasound.Mostly human for now
- 08Transport patients to and from treatment areas, using wheelchairs or providing standing support.Mostly human for now
- 09Perform clerical duties, such as taking inventory, ordering supplies, answering telephone, taking messages, or filling out forms.AI could speed this up a lot
- 10Schedule patient appointments with physical therapists and coordinate therapists' schedules.People already use AI for this at work
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
18%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 7% 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 70% 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.
- Clean and organize work area and disinfect equipment after treatment.
- Secure patients into or onto therapy equipment.
- Instruct, motivate, safeguard, or assist patients practicing exercises or functional activities, under direction of medical staff.