Will AI replace Music Therapists?
AI reaches a large part of this job’s work.
50/100
High exposure
More exposed to AI than 79% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 5% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 83% of the work
What the job involves
Plan, organize, direct, or assess clinical and evidenced-based music therapy interventions to positively influence individuals' physical, psychological, cognitive, or behavioral status.
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.
- Analyze or synthesize client data to draw conclusions or make recommendations for therapy.
Within reach(23)
- Design or provide music therapy experiences to address client needs, such as using music for self-care, adjusting to life changes, improving cognitive functioning, raising self-esteem, communicating, or controlling impulses.
- Design music therapy experiences, using various musical elements to meet client's goals or objectives.
- Customize treatment programs for specific areas of music therapy, such as intellectual or developmental disabilities, educational settings, geriatrics, medical settings, mental health, physical disabilities, or wellness.
- Document evaluations, treatment plans, case summaries, or progress or other reports related to individual clients or client groups.
- Establish client goals or objectives for music therapy treatment, considering client needs, capabilities, interests, overall therapeutic program, coordination of treatment, or length of treatment.
and 18 more
Out of reach(5)
- Sing or play musical instruments, such as keyboard, guitar, or percussion instruments.
- Communicate with clients to build rapport, acknowledge their progress, or reflect upon their reactions to musical experiences.
- Assess client functioning levels, strengths, and areas of need in terms of perceptual, sensory, affective, communicative, musical, physical, cognitive, social, spiritual, or other abilities.
- Supervise staff, volunteers, practicum students, or interns engaged in music therapy activities.
- Identify and respond to emergency physical or mental health situations.
Also called
Board Certified Music Therapist (MT-BC) · Music Therapist · MT-BC · LCAT (Licensed Creative Arts Therapist) · Neurologic Music Therapist · Public School System Music Therapist · Therapist · Activity 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