AI exposure: 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.
Reading this score
computedPhysical Therapists is one of the unusual cases where capability and friction are both high. Current systems can produce a great deal of this work, with average capability across its tasks at 2.0 out of 4. Only 21.0% of the weighted task load comes out as exposed, because 29.7% of it runs into something structural. Jobs in this band tend not to disappear. They change shape, and the person stays.
What holds the line here is verification cost. Across this occupation's 24 tasks it averages 2.58 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 Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information..., at 52.5%. The least is Construct, maintain, or repair medical supportive devices, at 0.0%. A gap of 52.5% 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 29 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 24 tasks, 4 are currently banded exposed, 13 assisted and 7 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 | 1.99 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.92 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.65 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 2.43 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.94 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.58 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Roles in this band tend to change shape rather than disappear. The output gets drafted faster and the person moves toward review, judgment and accountability. The useful question is not whether to use these tools but who is trusted to sign off on what they produce.
Task by task
24 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer. | 52.5% | 35.0% | 12.5% | 4.73 | exposed |
| Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.66 | exposed |
| Provide educational information about physical therapy or physical therapists, injury prevention, ergonomics, or ways to promote health. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.38 | exposed |
| Participate in community or community agency activities or help to formulate public policy. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.24 | exposed |
| Identify and document goals, anticipated progress, and plans for reevaluation. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.57 | assisted |
| 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. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.79 | assisted |
| Review physician's referral and patient's medical records to help determine diagnosis and physical therapy treatment required. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.60 | assisted |
| Discharge patient from physical therapy when goals or projected outcomes have been attained and provide for appropriate follow-up care or referrals. | 29.2% | 33.3% | 37.5% | 4.34 | assisted |
| Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention. | 23.7% | 43.0% | 33.3% | 4.78 | assisted |
| Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit. | 20.8% | 41.7% | 37.5% | 4.69 | assisted |
| Conduct or support research and apply research findings to practice. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.54 | assisted |
| Refer clients to community resources or services. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 3.84 | assisted |
| Direct group rehabilitation activities. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 3.09 | assisted |
| Inform patients and refer to appropriate practitioners when diagnosis reveals findings outside physical therapy. | 15.0% | 35.0% | 50.0% | 4.37 | assisted |
| Test and measure patient's strength, motor development and function, sensory perception, functional capacity, or respiratory or circulatory efficiency and record data. | 14.4% | 35.6% | 50.0% | 4.62 | assisted |
| Confer with the patient, medical practitioners, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or assess the intervention program. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 4.69 | assisted |
| Provide information to the patient about the proposed intervention, its material risks and expected benefits, and any reasonable alternatives. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 4.41 | assisted |
| Evaluate, fit, or adjust prosthetic or orthotic devices or recommend modification to orthotist. | 12.5% | 25.0% | 62.5% | 3.77 | untouched |
| Direct, supervise, assess, and communicate with supportive personnel. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.62 | untouched |
| Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.69 | untouched |
| Teach physical therapy students or those in other health professions. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 3.73 | untouched |
| Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.67 | untouched |
| Administer treatment involving application of physical agents, using equipment, moist packs, ultraviolet or infrared lamps, or ultrasound machines. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.90 | untouched |
| Construct, maintain, or repair medical supportive devices. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.79 | 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.