Will AI replace Art Therapists?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
33/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 50% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 7% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 56% of the work
What the job involves
Plan or conduct art therapy sessions or programs to improve clients' physical, cognitive, or emotional well-being.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(2)
- Communicate client assessment findings and recommendations in oral, written, audio, video, or other forms.
- Review research or literature in art therapy, psychology, or related disciplines.
Within reach(11)
- Conduct art therapy sessions, providing guided self-expression experiences to help clients recover from, or cope with, cognitive, emotional, or physical impairments.
- Write treatment plans, case summaries, or progress or other reports related to individual clients or client groups.
- Develop individualized treatment plans that incorporate studio art therapy, counseling, or psychotherapy techniques.
- Establish goals or objectives for art therapy sessions in consultation with clients or site administrators.
- Design art therapy sessions or programs to meet client's goals or objectives.
and 6 more
Out of reach(12)
- Talk with clients during art or other therapy sessions to build rapport, acknowledge their progress, or reflect upon their reactions to the artistic process.
- Assess client needs or disorders, using drawing, painting, sculpting, or other artistic processes.
- Observe and document client reactions, progress, or other outcomes related to art therapy.
- Select or prepare artistic media or related equipment or devices to accomplish therapy session objectives.
- Confer with other professionals on client's treatment team to develop, coordinate, or integrate treatment plans.
and 7 more
Also called
Activity Therapy Specialist · ATR (Registered Art Therapist) · Creative Arts Therapist · Therapist · ATR · Expressive Therapist · Art Psychotherapist · ATR-BC (Board Certified Art Therapist)
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What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics