AI exposure: Naturopathic Physicians
Diagnose, treat, and help prevent diseases using a system of practice that is based on the natural healing capacity of individuals. May use physiological, psychological or mechanical methods. May also use natural medicines, prescription or legend drugs, foods, herbs, or other natural remedies.
Reading this score
computedAt 23.0% of weighted task load, Naturopathic Physicians sits at the 43th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 52.8% 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 accountability. Across this occupation's 20 tasks it averages 2.45 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, someone licensed has to sign the work. Capability and permission are different things. Where a statute or a professional body requires a named, liable human to approve the output, the work can be drafted by a machine and still require the person.
The most exposed thing this job does is Educate patients about health care management, at 66.7%. The least is Perform minor surgical procedures, at 0.0%. A gap of 66.7% 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 practitioner and technical occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 89 roles in the group is 18.4%, and only 17 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 20 tasks, 6 are currently banded exposed, 5 assisted and 9 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take a change in who is permitted to sign the work, which is a question for regulators rather than for engineers. 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 | 1.73 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.23 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.80 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 2.45 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.80 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.45 | 0-3 |
Task by task
20 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Educate patients about health care management. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 4.88 | exposed |
| Obtain medical records from previous physicians or other health care providers for the purpose of patient evaluation. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.04 | exposed |
| Document patients' histories, including identifying data, chief complaints, illnesses, previous medical or family histories, or psychosocial characteristics. | 53.3% | 46.7% | 0.0% | 4.96 | exposed |
| Advise patients about therapeutic exercise and nutritional medicine regimens. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.88 | exposed |
| Report patterns of patients' health conditions, such as disease status and births, to public health agencies. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 3.29 | assisted |
| Diagnose health conditions, based on patients' symptoms and health histories, laboratory and diagnostic radiology test results, or other physiological measurements, such as electrocardiograms and electroencephalographs. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.71 | assisted |
| Maintain professional development through activities such as postgraduate education, continuing education, preceptorships, and residency programs. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.16 | exposed |
| Monitor updates from public health agencies to keep abreast of health trends. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.67 | exposed |
| Interview patients to document symptoms and health histories. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.84 | assisted |
| Order diagnostic imaging procedures such as radiographs (x-rays), ultrasounds, mammograms, and bone densitometry tests, or refer patients to other health professionals for these procedures. | 18.3% | 31.7% | 50.0% | 4.26 | assisted |
| Consult with other health professionals to provide optimal patient care, referring patients to traditional health care professionals as necessary. | 15.0% | 35.0% | 50.0% | 4.36 | assisted |
| Prescribe synthetic drugs under the supervision of medical doctors or within the allowances of regulatory bodies. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 3.47 | untouched |
| Conduct physical examinations and physiological function tests for diagnostic purposes. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.87 | untouched |
| Administer, dispense, or prescribe natural medicines, such as food or botanical extracts, herbs, dietary supplements, vitamins, nutraceuticals, and amino acids. | 2.9% | 9.6% | 87.5% | 4.84 | untouched |
| Treat minor cuts, abrasions, or contusions. | 1.7% | 23.3% | 75.0% | 3.24 | untouched |
| Administer treatments or therapies, such as homeopathy, hydrotherapy, Oriental or Ayurvedic medicine, electrotherapy, and diathermy, using physical agents including air, heat, cold, water, sound, or ultraviolet light to catalyze the body to heal itself. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.40 | untouched |
| Conduct periodic public health maintenance activities such as immunizations and screenings for diseases and disease risk factors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.86 | untouched |
| Perform venipuncture or skin pricking to collect blood samples. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.67 | untouched |
| Perform mobilizations and high-velocity adjustments to joints or soft tissues, using principles of massage, stretching, or resistance. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.63 | untouched |
| Perform minor surgical procedures, such as removing warts, moles, or cysts, sampling tissues for skin cancer or lipomas, and applying or removing sutures. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.33 | 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.