AI exposure: Orthotists and Prosthetists
Design, measure, fit, and adapt orthopedic braces, appliances or prostheses, such as limbs or facial parts for patients with disabling conditions.
Reading this score
computedAt 12.2% of weighted task load, Orthotists and Prosthetists sits at the 18th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 69.9% 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 15 tasks it averages 2.50 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 Maintain patients' records, at 53.3%. The least is Make and modify plaster casts of areas to be fitted with prostheses or orthoses to guide the..., at 0.0%. A gap of 53.3% 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 practitioner and technical occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 18.5% across the group's 89 roles, with 73 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 15 tasks, 2 are currently banded exposed, 4 assisted and 9 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 | 1.26 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.79 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.60 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 2.29 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.71 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.50 | 0-3 |
Task by task
15 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintain patients' records. | 53.3% | 46.7% | 0.0% | 4.76 | exposed |
| Update skills and knowledge by attending conferences and seminars. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.81 | exposed |
| Publish research findings or present them at conferences and seminars. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 2.83 | assisted |
| Design orthopedic and prosthetic devices, based on physicians' prescriptions and examination and measurement of patients. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.53 | assisted |
| Research new ways to construct and use orthopedic and prosthetic devices. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.70 | assisted |
| Confer with physicians to formulate specifications and prescriptions for orthopedic or prosthetic devices. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 4.00 | assisted |
| Examine, interview, and measure patients to determine their appliance needs and to identify factors that could affect appliance fit. | 10.4% | 23.0% | 66.7% | 4.71 | untouched |
| Train and supervise support staff, such as orthopedic and prosthetic assistants and technicians. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 3.85 | untouched |
| Instruct patients in the use and care of orthoses and prostheses. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.76 | untouched |
| Show and explain orthopedic and prosthetic appliances to healthcare workers. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 3.95 | untouched |
| Construct and fabricate appliances, or supervise others constructing the appliances. | 4.2% | 8.3% | 87.5% | 4.43 | untouched |
| Fit, test, and evaluate devices on patients, and make adjustments for proper fit, function, and comfort. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.81 | untouched |
| Select materials and components to be used, based on device design. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.62 | untouched |
| Repair, rebuild, and modify prosthetic and orthopedic appliances. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.48 | untouched |
| Make and modify plaster casts of areas to be fitted with prostheses or orthoses to guide the device construction process. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.38 | 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.