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Healthcare · Updated Aug 2026

Physical Therapists

Assess, plan, organize, and participate in rehabilitative programs that improve mobility, relieve pain, increase strength, and improve or correct disabling conditions resulting from disease or injury.

JVS 2.0.0-phase4b
AI Exposure
63/100
High

How much of this occupation’s work can be materially affected by current AI systems.

Replacement Risk
50/100
Moderate

How likely exposure is to translate into reduced human demand.

Includes provisional estimates for AI adoption pressure and labour-market resilience. How this is measured

Evidence quality
Confidence82/100
Task coverage86%

Confidence reflects task coverage, mapping and capability-evidence quality, and how much of the score rests on provisional inputs.

Task-level evidence

What is driving the score?

Occupation scores are built from the task mix—not a single prediction about a job title.

JVS 2.0.0-phase4b
TaskImportanceAI impactExposure
Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.High
68
Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer.High
65
Direct, supervise, assess, and communicate with supportive personnel.High
67
Confer with the patient, medical practitioners, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or assess the intervention program.High
66
Test and measure patient's strength, motor development and function, sensory perception, functional capacity, or respiratory or circulatory efficiency and record data.High
66
Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.High
67
Identify and document goals, anticipated progress, and plans for reevaluation.High
67
Review physician's referral and patient's medical records to help determine diagnosis and physical therapy treatment required.High
67
Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling.High
55
Plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or prevent physical dysfunction in patients.High
47
Provide educational information about physical therapy or physical therapists, injury prevention, ergonomics, or ways to promote health.High
68
Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home.High
56
Provide information to the patient about the proposed intervention, its material risks and expected benefits, and any reasonable alternatives.High
56
Administer treatment involving application of physical agents, using equipment, moist packs, ultraviolet or infrared lamps, or ultrasound machines.Medium
65
Discharge patient from physical therapy when goals or projected outcomes have been attained and provide for appropriate follow-up care or referrals.High
55
Inform patients and refer to appropriate practitioners when diagnosis reveals findings outside physical therapy.High
66
Conduct or support research and apply research findings to practice.Medium
67
Most exposed

Where AI can do more

Routine, digitized, and highly repeatable tasks face the greatest pressure.

  1. Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.68
  2. Provide educational information about physical therapy or physical therapists, injury prevention, ergonomics, or ways to promote health.68
  3. Direct, supervise, assess, and communicate with supportive personnel.67
  4. Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.67
Hardest to automate

Where people still matter

These tasks score lowest on automation feasibility—physical presence, judgement, accountability and real-world variability all resist end-to-end automation.

  1. Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.01
  2. Direct, supervise, assess, and communicate with supportive personnel.02
  3. Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.03
  4. Identify and document goals, anticipated progress, and plans for reevaluation.04
  5. Provide educational information about physical therapy or physical therapists, injury prevention, ergonomics, or ways to promote health.05
Where else this work leads

Related occupations

Occupations O*NET links to this one. Relatedness reflects shared work, not a claim that these roles are safer.

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Beyond AI capability

Adoption and labour-market outlook

Structural factors are kept separate from raw capability so you can see what actually resists automation. Adoption pressure and labour-market resilience are still provisional models—25% of this occupation’s replacement-risk weight rests on them.

Human dependency60
Physical dependency46
Adoption pressure49
Labour-market resilience76
Methodology & sources

O*NET 30.3 occupational data interpreted through the JobsVsAI capability, automation and structural-constraint models.

Confidence82/100
CalculatedAug 21, 2026
Read methodology →