AI exposure: Massage Therapists
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.
Reading this score
computedAt 10.9% of weighted task load, Massage Therapists sits at the 16th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 74.2% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is presence. Across this occupation's 14 tasks it averages 2.14 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, a person has to be the one present. This is the friction software does not erode. Where the point of the act is that a human is there, to care or to witness or to take responsibility in the room, automating the output misses what was being paid for.
The most exposed thing this job does is Maintain treatment records, at 60.0%. The least is Use complementary aids, at 0.0%. A gap of 60.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within healthcare support occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 12.0% across the group's 19 roles, with 10 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 14 tasks, 1 are currently banded exposed, 4 assisted and 9 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 1.00 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.96 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 2.14 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 2.04 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.46 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.11 | 0-3 |
Task by task
14 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintain treatment records. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.14 | exposed |
| Refer clients to other types of therapists when necessary. | 21.7% | 28.3% | 50.0% | 3.65 | assisted |
| Confer with clients about their medical histories and problems with stress or pain to determine how massage will be most helpful. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.71 | assisted |
| Develop and propose client treatment plans that specify which types of massage are to be used. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.26 | assisted |
| Consult with other health care professionals, such as physiotherapists, chiropractors, physicians, and psychologists, to develop treatment plans for clients. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 3.52 | assisted |
| Provide clients with guidance and information about techniques for postural improvement and stretching, strengthening, relaxation, and rehabilitative exercises. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.15 | untouched |
| Assess clients' soft tissue condition, joint quality and function, muscle strength, and range of motion. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.11 | untouched |
| Massage and knead muscles and soft tissues of the body to provide treatment for medical conditions, injuries, or wellness maintenance. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.93 | untouched |
| Apply finger and hand pressure to specific points of the body. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.82 | untouched |
| Maintain massage areas by restocking supplies or sanitizing equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.54 | untouched |
| Treat clients in professional settings or travel to clients' offices and homes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.54 | untouched |
| Perform other adjunctive therapies or treatment techniques in addition to massage. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.60 | untouched |
| Prepare and blend oils and apply the blends to clients' skin. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.39 | untouched |
| Use complementary aids, such as infrared lamps, wet compresses, ice, and whirlpool baths to promote clients' recovery, relaxation, and well-being. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 2.65 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.