Occupational Therapist
Occupational therapy scores 39/100 on the site's structural exposure model — a high-exposure read, since that model mostly measures language/cognitive task content and has a documented blind spot for licensed, hands-on clinical work.
In real usage data, AI shows up in this job about as often as the average occupation: not high, not negligible.
Technical detail
Based on Microsoft's "Working with AI" study of real Copilot conversations mapped to O*NET tasks (arXiv 2507.07935): Occupational Therapists scored 0.106 on AI applicability, within one standard deviation of the cross-occupation mean (0.159, stdev 0.098) across all 785 SOC codes studied — banded here as Medium real-world AI usage relative to other occupations.
Corroborating signal from the Anthropic Economic Index (Claude.ai/API conversations, a different product and userbase than the Microsoft data above): Occupational Therapists shows measurable Claude usage tied to this occupation's tasks, though at low absolute volume — treat as directional confirmation, not a second precise score.
What a occupational therapist actually does
Occupational therapists help patients develop, recover, improve, and maintain the skills needed for daily living and working. The role involves evaluating patients' conditions and needs, developing individualized treatment plans, teaching patients to use adaptive equipment such as built-up utensils, dressing aids, or custom hand splints, modifying environments and recommending home safety changes to support independence, running cognitive rehabilitation exercises for patients recovering from traumatic brain injury or stroke, and documenting progress for physicians and insurers.
OTs work with diverse populations, including children with developmental delays, adults recovering from injuries or strokes, seniors aging in place, and individuals managing chronic conditions. Treatment might involve practicing dressing techniques with a stroke patient, recommending workplace and ergonomic modifications for someone with a repetitive strain injury, fitting a wheelchair or shower chair to a patient's specific body and home, or developing sensory integration activities for a child with autism.
Work settings include hospitals, rehabilitation centers, schools, nursing homes, and patients' homes. The profession requires understanding anatomy, psychology, adaptive technology, and activity analysis, breaking a task like cooking or bathing into its component steps to identify exactly where a patient struggles and how to help them regain independence.
Why it reads this way
Occupational therapy scores 39/100 on the site's structural exposure model — a high-exposure read, since that model mostly measures language/cognitive task content and has a documented blind spot for licensed, hands-on clinical work. Two real-world protections apply on top of that number.
First, every state ties OT evaluation and treatment planning to a licensed individual: practicing without a license is a criminal misdemeanor in states including South Dakota, Florida, and Pennsylvania, and OT assistants who help gather data during an evaluation still cannot independently interpret it — that stays with the licensed OT.
Second, the work is genuinely hands-on: O*NET data shows 68% of OTs report working in very close physical proximity to patients and constant face-to-face contact, reflecting tasks like practicing dressing techniques with a stroke patient or fitting adaptive equipment in someone's actual home.
We specifically checked for a digital-OT equivalent to the exception found in physical therapy — a platform disclosing large-scale automation of OT labor hours, the way Hinge Health disclosed for PT — and found none as of August 2026; digital musculoskeletal platforms (Hinge Health, Sword Health, Kaia Health) remain PT-focused, likely because OT's individualized, home-context work resists the standardized exercise protocols those platforms automate.
Demand is also rising, with BLS projecting 14% job growth through 2034 as the aging population needs more help with daily living skills. This is a dated, evidence-based read, not a permanent guarantee — see our full research verdict below for sources.
Skills this role draws on
We don't yet have task-by-task time-share data for this occupation, so we can't show which specific tasks carry the exposure score above. This is the real skill set instead.
Typical salary range (USD)
$62,000–$130,000
Average: $101,280/yr
Range source: BLS Occupational Employment Statistics, May 2024
Average source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Annual Mean Wage)
Nearest jobs by score
Related careers
Head-to-head comparisons
Occupational Therapist is assessed as AI-resistant despite the paperwork. The structuralScore of 39 flags high task-exposure on paper, but every state requires a licensed OT (or a directly-supervised assistant who cannot independently interpret evaluation data) to perform assessment and treatment planning, and O*NET data shows the work is genuinely hands-on — 68% of OTs report very close physical proximity to patients. We specifically searched for a digital-OT platform disclosing labor-hour automation the way Hinge Health disclosed for physical therapy, and found none: existing digital MSK platforms (Hinge Health, Sword Health, Kaia Health) remain PT-focused, not OT-focused. This is a moderate-confidence read as of August 2026, largely because the core licensing statutes cited are older laws still in force rather than recent sources; we'll check back within six months.
This is a researched judgment (checklist v1.2), not a statistical measurement — it sits alongside, not instead of, the structural exposure signal above. Next scheduled review: 2027-02-08.
Sources (17)
- https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-1122.00
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/occupational-therapists.htm
- https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1673743/000119312525051004/d829170ds1.htm
- https://hospitalogy.com/articles/2025-03-14/hinge-health-s1-breakdown/
- https://swordhealth.com/newsroom/sword-acquires-kaia-health
- https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/ai-and-machine-learning/sword-health-buys-kaia-health-285m-deal-expand-its-footprint-us-germany
- https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/36-31
- https://floridasoccupationaltherapy.gov/applications/chapter-64B11.pdf
- https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/US/HTM/1982/0/0140..HTM
- https://www.aota.org/-/media/corporate/files/advocacy/state/resources/practiceact/final-model-practice-act-2022.pdf
- https://www.oregon.gov/otlb/pages/telehealth.aspx
- https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/oregon/Or-Admin-Code-SS-339-010-0006
- https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/california/16-CCR-4172
- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/148.6432/pdf
- https://www.aota.org/publications/ot-practice/ot-practice-issues/2025/supervision-101-important-considerations-for-supervisors-and-supervisees
- https://www.aota.org/-/media/corporate/files/aboutaota/officialdocs/policies/e19-ethical-use-of-artificial-intelligence-ai-2025.pdf
- https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7426/5/2/22
Data sources & methodology
Salary data: BLS Occupational Employment Statistics, May 2024. Min/max figures represent the 10th–90th percentile annual wage range across the United States. Average figure sourced separately: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Annual Mean Wage).
Automation Risk Score: Based on O*NET occupational analysis (29-1122.00) evaluating task complexity, physical requirements, social intelligence, and environmental variability. Methodology based on research from Frey & Osborne (Oxford, 2017).
Growth projections: 14% (2024-2034), based on BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.