Job Check
Psychiatric Technicians
Care for individuals with mental or emotional conditions or disabilities, following the instructions of physicians or other health practitioners. Monitor patients' physical and emotional well-being and report to medical staff. May participate in rehabilitation and treatment programs, help with personal hygiene, and administer oral or injectable medications.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Provide nursing, psychiatric, or personal care to patients with cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities.Mostly human for now
- 02Encourage patients to develop work skills and to participate in social, recreational, or other therapeutic activities that enhance interpersonal skills or develop social relationships.Mostly human for now
- 03Restrain violent, potentially violent, or suicidal patients by verbal or physical means as required.Mostly human for now
- 04Lead prescribed individual or group therapy sessions as part of specific therapeutic procedures.Mostly human for now
- 05Monitor patients' physical and emotional well-being and report unusual behavior or physical ailments to medical staff.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Take and record measures of patients' physical condition, using devices such as thermometers or blood pressure gauges.Mostly human for now
- 07Observe and influence patients' behavior, communicating and interacting with them and teaching, counseling, or befriending them.Mostly human for now
- 08Aid patients in performing tasks, such as bathing or keeping beds, clothing, or living areas clean.Mostly human for now
- 09Collaborate with or assist doctors, psychologists, or rehabilitation therapists in working with patients with cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities to treat, rehabilitate, and return patients to the community.Mostly human for now
- 10Develop or teach strategies to promote client wellness and independence.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
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
12%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 15% 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 48% 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.
- Provide nursing, psychiatric, or personal care to patients with cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities.
- Encourage patients to develop work skills and to participate in social, recreational, or other therapeutic activities that enhance interpersonal skills or develop social relationships.
- Restrain violent, potentially violent, or suicidal patients by verbal or physical means as required.