Will AI replace Massage Therapists?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
19/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 33% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 30% of the work
What the job involves
Perform therapeutic massages of soft tissues and joints. May assist in the assessment of range of motion and muscle strength, or propose client therapy plans.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(4)
- Confer with clients about their medical histories and problems with stress or pain to determine how massage will be most helpful.
- Maintain treatment records.
- Develop and propose client treatment plans that specify which types of massage are to be used.
- Consult with other health care professionals, such as physiotherapists, chiropractors, physicians, and psychologists, to develop treatment plans for clients.
Out of reach(10)
- Apply finger and hand pressure to specific points of the body.
- Massage and knead muscles and soft tissues of the body to provide treatment for medical conditions, injuries, or wellness maintenance.
- Maintain massage areas by restocking supplies or sanitizing equipment.
- Treat clients in professional settings or travel to clients' offices and homes.
- Assess clients' soft tissue condition, joint quality and function, muscle strength, and range of motion.
and 5 more
Also called
Certified Massage Therapist (CMT) · CMT · Clinical Massage Therapist · Licensed Massage Practitioner (LMP) · Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) · MMT (Medical Massage Therapist) · LMP · LMT
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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