AI exposure: Physical Therapist Assistants
Assist physical therapists in providing physical therapy treatments and procedures. May, in accordance with state laws, assist in the development of treatment plans, carry out routine functions, document the progress of treatment, and modify specific treatments in accordance with patient status and within the scope of treatment plans established by a physical therapist. Generally requires formal training.
Reading this score
computedAt 9.3% of weighted task load, Physical Therapist Assistants sits at the 13th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 75.4% 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 21 tasks it averages 2.35 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 Document patient information, at 56.7%. The least is Perform therapeutic wound care, at 0.0%. A gap of 56.7% 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 14 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 21 tasks, 2 are currently banded exposed, 3 assisted and 16 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 | 0.84 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.28 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 2.35 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.98 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.55 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.21 | 0-3 |
Task by task
21 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document patient information, such as notes on their progress. | 56.7% | 43.3% | 0.0% | 4.89 | exposed |
| Perform clerical duties, such as taking inventory, ordering supplies, answering telephone, taking messages, or filling out forms. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 3.09 | exposed |
| Observe patients during treatments to compile and evaluate data on their responses and progress and provide results to physical therapist in person or through progress notes. | 23.7% | 43.0% | 33.3% | 4.85 | assisted |
| 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% | 4.51 | assisted |
| Monitor operation of equipment and record use of equipment and administration of treatment. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 4.05 | assisted |
| Communicate with or instruct caregivers or family members on patient therapeutic activities or treatment plans. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.26 | untouched |
| Train patients in the use of orthopedic braces, prostheses, or supportive devices. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.15 | untouched |
| Attend or conduct continuing education courses, seminars, or in-service activities. | 4.6% | 7.9% | 87.5% | 3.86 | untouched |
| Measure patients' range-of-joint motion, body parts, or vital signs to determine effects of treatments or for patient evaluations. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.17 | untouched |
| Instruct, motivate, safeguard, and assist patients as they practice exercises or functional activities. | 2.9% | 9.6% | 87.5% | 4.89 | untouched |
| Perform postural drainage, percussions, or vibrations or teach deep breathing exercises to treat respiratory conditions. | 2.9% | 9.6% | 87.5% | 3.57 | untouched |
| Instruct patients in proper body mechanics and in ways to improve functional mobility, such as aquatic exercise. | 2.5% | 10.0% | 87.5% | 4.67 | untouched |
| Secure patients into or onto therapy equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.56 | untouched |
| Administer active or passive manual therapeutic exercises, therapeutic massage, aquatic physical therapy, or heat, light, sound, or electrical modality treatments, such as ultrasound. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.44 | untouched |
| Transport patients to and from treatment areas, lifting and transferring them according to positioning requirements. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.42 | untouched |
| Clean work area and check and store equipment after treatment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.27 | 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% | 3.88 | untouched |
| Fit patients for orthopedic braces, prostheses, or supportive devices, such as crutches. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.82 | untouched |
| Prepare treatment areas and electrotherapy equipment for use by physiotherapists. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.91 | untouched |
| Administer traction to relieve neck or back pain, using intermittent or static traction equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.89 | untouched |
| Perform therapeutic wound care. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 2.87 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean. 2 task(s) lacked a usable O*NET weight and are shown but excluded from the weighting.
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.