Will AI replace Occupational Therapy Aides?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
8/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 17% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 6% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 16% of the work
What the job involves
Under close supervision of an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. These duties include preparing patient and treatment room.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Observe patients' attendance, progress, attitudes, and accomplishments and record and maintain information in client records.
Within reach(1)
- Report to supervisors or therapists, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, attendance, and accomplishments.
Out of reach(13)
- Encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals.
- Prepare and maintain work area, materials, and equipment and maintain inventory of treatment and educational supplies.
- Assist occupational therapists in planning, implementing, and administering therapy programs to restore, reinforce, and enhance performance, using selected activities and special equipment.
- Demonstrate therapy techniques, such as manual and creative arts and games.
- Perform clerical, administrative, and secretarial duties, such as answering phones, restocking and ordering supplies, filling out paperwork, and scheduling appointments.
and 8 more
Also called
Occupational Therapy Aide (OT Aide) · OT Aide · Occupational Therapist Aide (OT Aide) · Rehabilitation Aide (Rehab Aide) · Rehab Aide · Certified Occupational Rehabilitation Aide (CORA) · Occupational Rehabilitation Aide · Rehabilitation Services Aide
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