AI exposure: Physical Therapist Aides
Under close supervision of a physical therapist or physical therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. These duties include preparing the patient and the treatment area.
Reading this score
computedAt 10.4% of weighted task load, Physical Therapist Aides sits at the 15th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 78.6% 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 embodiment. Across this occupation's 19 tasks it averages 2.29 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Schedule patient appointments with physical therapists and coordinate therapists' schedules, at 73.3%. The least is Participate in patient care tasks, at 0.0%. A gap of 73.3% 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 12 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 19 tasks, 3 are currently banded exposed, 2 assisted and 14 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 | 0.87 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.29 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 2.00 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.76 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.47 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.03 | 0-3 |
Task by task
19 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schedule patient appointments with physical therapists and coordinate therapists' schedules. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.98 | exposed |
| Record treatment given and equipment used. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.23 | exposed |
| Perform clerical duties, such as taking inventory, ordering supplies, answering telephone, taking messages, or filling out forms. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 4.04 | exposed |
| Confer with physical therapy staff or others to discuss and evaluate patient information for planning, modifying, or coordinating treatment. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 4.27 | assisted |
| Observe patients during treatment to compile and evaluate data on patients' responses and progress and report to physical therapist. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 4.24 | assisted |
| Train patients to use orthopedic braces, prostheses, or supportive devices. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 3.98 | untouched |
| Measure patient's range-of-joint motion, body parts, or vital signs to determine effects of treatments or for patient evaluations. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.18 | untouched |
| Instruct, motivate, safeguard, or assist patients practicing exercises or functional activities, under direction of medical staff. | 2.9% | 9.6% | 87.5% | 4.36 | untouched |
| Clean and organize work area and disinfect equipment after treatment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Secure patients into or onto therapy equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Change linens, such as bed sheets and pillow cases. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.24 | untouched |
| Administer active or passive manual therapeutic exercises, therapeutic massage, or heat, light, sound, water, or electrical modality treatments, such as ultrasound. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.24 | untouched |
| Transport patients to and from treatment areas, using wheelchairs or providing standing support. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.20 | untouched |
| Arrange treatment supplies to keep them in order. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.85 | untouched |
| Assist patients to dress, undress, or put on and remove supportive devices, such as braces, splints, or slings. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.62 | untouched |
| Maintain equipment or furniture to keep it in good working condition, including performing the assembly or disassembly of equipment or accessories. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.59 | untouched |
| Administer traction to relieve neck or back pain, using intermittent or static traction equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.71 | untouched |
| Fit patients for orthopedic braces, prostheses, or supportive devices, adjusting fit as needed. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.36 | untouched |
| Participate in patient care tasks, such as assisting with passing food trays, feeding residents, or bathing residents on bed rest. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.07 | 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.