Job Check
Physical Therapist Assistants
Assist physical therapists in providing physical therapy treatments and procedures. May, in accordance with state laws, assist in the development of treatment plans, carry out routine functions, document the progress of treatment, and modify specific treatments in accordance with patient status and within the scope of treatment plans established by a physical therapist. Generally requires formal training.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Instruct, motivate, safeguard, and assist patients as they practice exercises or functional activities.Mostly human for now
- 02Document patient information, such as notes on their progress.AI could speed this up a lot
- 03Observe patients during treatments to compile and evaluate data on their responses and progress and provide results to physical therapist in person or through progress notes.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 04Instruct patients in proper body mechanics and in ways to improve functional mobility, such as aquatic exercise.Mostly human for now
- 05Secure patients into or onto therapy equipment.Mostly human for now
- 06Confer with physical therapy staff or others to discuss and evaluate patient information for planning, modifying, or coordinating treatment.Mostly human for now
- 07Administer active or passive manual therapeutic exercises, therapeutic massage, aquatic physical therapy, or heat, light, sound, or electrical modality treatments, such as ultrasound.Mostly human for now
- 08Transport patients to and from treatment areas, lifting and transferring them according to positioning requirements.Mostly human for now
- 09Clean work area and check and store equipment after treatment.Mostly human for now
- 10Communicate with or instruct caregivers or family members on patient therapeutic activities or treatment plans.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
15%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 8% 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 66% 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.
- Instruct, motivate, safeguard, and assist patients as they practice exercises or functional activities.
- Instruct patients in proper body mechanics and in ways to improve functional mobility, such as aquatic exercise.
- Secure patients into or onto therapy equipment.