---
title: "Will AI Replace Occupational Therapy Assistants?"
description: "BLS rates occupational therapy assistants' exposure to AI as moderate. What that means, which parts of the work AI touches, and the 2025–2035 outlook…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-occupational-therapy-assistants"
last-updated: "2026-10-15T08:19:32.066Z"
---

# Will AI Replace Occupational Therapy Assistants? (2026)

**Short answer:** Unlikely. BLS rates the work's exposure to AI as moderate, below the middle of the pack, and still projects employment to grow faster than average.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics places occupational therapy assistants in its moderate AI exposure category, below the middle of the pack: some of the work overlaps with what AI can do, much of it does not. BLS projects employment to change by +21.5% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 8,100 openings a year.

| Measure | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| BLS relative AI exposure | Moderate | BLS Employment Projections, AI exposure categories |
| NueCareer AI-resilience score | 52/100 | NueCareer analysis of O\*NET 31.0 Database |
| Projected employment change | +21.5% | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Openings a year | 8,100 | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Median annual wage | $72,300 | BLS OEWS May 2025 |

## Exposure categories

| BLS category | Occupations |
| --- | --- |
| Low | 203 |
| Moderate (this job) | 194 |
| High | 190 |
| Very high | 199 |

Exposure means AI could be or has been used to assist with or complete some of the work. BLS says it does not imply job loss, productivity gains, automation probability or wage effects. Method: https://www.bls.gov/emp/publications/ai-exposure-categories.htm

## What holds up

- Assisting and caring for others: 4.8/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Performing general physical activities: 4.2/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Face-to-face discussions: 4.7/5 (O\*NET work context)
- Establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships: 4.5/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## What AI reaches first

- Documenting/recording information: 4.8/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Repeating the same tasks: 4.1/5 (O\*NET work context)
- Working with computers: 4.0/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Evaluating information to determine compliance with standards: 3.9/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## O\*NET tasks

- Maintain and promote a positive attitude toward clients and their treatment programs.
- Report to supervisors, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, and behavior.
- Monitor patients' performance in therapy activities, providing encouragement.
- Observe and record patients' progress, attitudes, and behavior and maintain this information in client records.
- Select therapy activities to fit patients' needs and capabilities.
- Attend continuing education classes.

## Related careers less exposed to AI than occupational therapy assistants

- [Physical Therapist Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-therapist-assistant): BLS exposure Low, median $68,380; [Will AI replace physical therapist assistants?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-physical-therapist-assistants)
- [Respiratory Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/respiratory-therapist): BLS exposure Low, median $82,280; [Will AI replace respiratory therapists?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-respiratory-therapists)
- [Physical Therapist Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-therapist-aide): BLS exposure Low, median $35,240

## FAQ

**Will AI replace occupational therapy assistants?**

Unlikely. BLS rates the work's exposure to AI as moderate, below the middle of the pack, and still projects employment to grow faster than average. BLS defines exposure as AI being able to assist with or complete some of the work, and says it does not imply job loss, productivity gains or wage effects. BLS projects employment to change by +21.5% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 8,100 openings a year.

**How exposed are occupational therapy assistants to AI?**

BLS sorts 786 occupations into four relative categories: low, moderate, high and very high. Occupational Therapy Assistants are in the moderate category, alongside 193 other occupations. The categories combine five public measures of where AI could be or already is used, and they compare occupations with each other rather than giving an absolute risk.

**What parts of an occupational therapy assistant's job can AI do?**

In O\*NET's description of the work, the parts that overlap most with what AI handles well are documenting/recording information, repeating the same tasks and working with computers. The parts that hold up best are assisting and caring for others, performing general physical activities and face-to-face discussions. These come from O\*NET ratings of how important each activity is to the job, read through NueCareer's AI-resilience method.

**Is being an occupational therapy assistant a safe career from AI?**

On NueCareer's AI-resilience score, built from O\*NET work activities, occupational therapy assistants score 52 out of 100, higher than 66% of the occupations we score. The job pays a median of $72,300 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025). No job is fully safe from technological change, but the federal exposure category and the projected openings are the two numbers worth weighing.

**What careers similar to occupational therapy assistants are less exposed to AI?**

Physical Therapist Assistant (low exposure, $68,380 median), Respiratory Therapist (low exposure, $82,280 median), Physical Therapist Aide (low exposure, $35,240 median). Each is in a lower BLS exposure category than occupational therapy assistants, and most are listed by O\*NET as related to the work.

Full profile: https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-therapy-assistant.

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology