Will AI replace Athletic Trainers?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
39/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 63% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 5% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 49% of the work
What the job involves
Evaluate and treat musculoskeletal injuries or illnesses. Provide preventive, therapeutic, emergency, and rehabilitative care.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Perform general administrative tasks, such as keeping records or writing reports.
Within reach(10)
- Conduct an initial assessment of an athlete's injury or illness to provide emergency or continued care and to determine whether they should be referred to physicians for definitive diagnosis and treatment.
- Assess and report the progress of recovering athletes to coaches or physicians.
- Instruct coaches, athletes, parents, medical personnel, or community members in the care and prevention of athletic injuries.
- Collaborate with physicians to develop and implement comprehensive rehabilitation programs for athletic injuries.
- Plan or implement comprehensive athletic injury or illness prevention programs.
and 5 more
Out of reach(12)
- Care for athletic injuries, using physical therapy equipment, techniques, or medication.
- Evaluate athletes' readiness to play and provide participation clearances when necessary and warranted.
- Clean and sanitize athletic training rooms.
- Apply protective or injury preventive devices, such as tape, bandages, or braces, to body parts, such as ankles, fingers, or wrists.
- Travel with athletic teams to be available at sporting events.
and 7 more
Also called
Athletic Trainer · Certified Athletic Trainer · Resident Athletic Trainer · Athletic Instructor · Athletic Lecturer · Personal Trainer · Women's Athletic Trainer · Clinical Athletic Instructor
Related jobs
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