AI exposure: Occupational Therapy Assistants
Assist occupational therapists in providing occupational therapy treatments and procedures. May, in accordance with state laws, assist in development of treatment plans, carry out routine functions, direct activity programs, and document the progress of treatments. Generally requires formal training.
Reading this score
computedAt 12.2% of weighted task load, Occupational Therapy Assistants sits at the 19th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 67.1% 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 verification cost. Across this occupation's 22 tasks it averages 2.14 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, checking the output costs more than producing it. Where an undetected error is expensive, dangerous or irreversible, the economics change. Someone has to verify the work, and verifying can cost as much as doing it. This is the friction most likely to fall as tools for checking improve.
The most exposed thing this job does is Perform clerical duties, at 51.8%. The least is Design, fabricate, or repair assistive devices or make adaptive changes to equipment or..., at 0.0%. A gap of 51.8% 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 more exposed than most. The median across the 19 roles in the group is 11.4%, and only 8 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 22 tasks, 1 are currently banded exposed, 8 assisted and 13 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 | 1.36 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.61 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.99 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 2.10 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.77 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.14 | 0-3 |
Task by task
22 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perform clerical duties, such as scheduling appointments, collecting data, or documenting health insurance billings. | 51.8% | 31.5% | 16.7% | 3.75 | exposed |
| Observe and record patients' progress, attitudes, and behavior and maintain this information in client records. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.73 | assisted |
| Report to supervisors, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, and behavior. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.77 | assisted |
| Select therapy activities to fit patients' needs and capabilities. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.72 | assisted |
| Alter treatment programs to obtain better results if treatment is not having the intended effect. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.49 | assisted |
| Evaluate the daily living skills or capacities of clients with physical, developmental, or mental health disabilities. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 4.60 | assisted |
| Communicate and collaborate with other healthcare professionals involved with the care of a patient. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 4.56 | assisted |
| Attend care plan meetings to review patient progress and update care plans. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 4.31 | assisted |
| Assist educational specialists or clinical psychologists in administering situational or diagnostic tests to measure client's abilities or progress. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 3.67 | assisted |
| Order any needed educational or treatment supplies. | 13.3% | 11.7% | 75.0% | 3.96 | untouched |
| Monitor patients' performance in therapy activities, providing encouragement. | 10.0% | 27.5% | 62.5% | 4.76 | untouched |
| Maintain and promote a positive attitude toward clients and their treatment programs. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.79 | untouched |
| Implement, or assist occupational therapists with implementing, treatment plans designed to help clients function independently. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.77 | untouched |
| Work under the direction of occupational therapists to plan, implement, or administer educational, vocational, or recreational programs that restore or enhance performance in individuals with functional impairments. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.56 | untouched |
| Teach patients how to deal constructively with their emotions. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.19 | untouched |
| Instruct, or assist in instructing, patients and families in home programs, basic living skills, or the care and use of adaptive equipment. | 5.8% | 19.2% | 75.0% | 4.81 | untouched |
| Demonstrate therapy techniques, such as manual or creative arts or games. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.20 | untouched |
| Attend continuing education classes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.68 | untouched |
| Aid patients in dressing and grooming themselves. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.68 | untouched |
| Assemble, clean, or maintain equipment or materials for patient use. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.46 | untouched |
| Transport patients to and from the occupational therapy work area. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.36 | untouched |
| Design, fabricate, or repair assistive devices or make adaptive changes to equipment or environments. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.36 | 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.