---
title: "Will AI Replace Physical Therapist Assistants?"
description: "BLS rates physical therapist assistants' exposure to AI as low. What that means, which parts of the work AI touches, and the 2025–2035 outlook (+23.0%…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-physical-therapist-assistants"
last-updated: "2026-10-15T08:19:32.066Z"
---

# Will AI Replace Physical Therapist Assistants? (2026)

**Short answer:** Very unlikely. BLS rates physical therapist assistants among the occupations least exposed to AI, and most of the work is the kind current AI tools cannot do.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics places physical therapist assistants in its low AI exposure category, among the occupations least exposed to current AI. BLS projects employment to change by +23.0% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 18,500 openings a year.

| Measure | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| BLS relative AI exposure | Low | BLS Employment Projections, AI exposure categories |
| NueCareer AI-resilience score | 60/100 | NueCareer analysis of O\*NET 31.0 Database |
| Projected employment change | +23.0% | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Openings a year | 18,500 | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Median annual wage | $68,380 | BLS OEWS May 2025 |

## Exposure categories

| BLS category | Occupations |
| --- | --- |
| Low (this job) | 203 |
| Moderate | 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: 5.0/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Performing general physical activities: 4.7/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Performing for or working directly with the public: 4.5/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Face-to-face discussions: 4.9/5 (O\*NET work context)

## What AI reaches first

- Documenting/recording information: 4.8/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Evaluating information to determine compliance with standards: 4.2/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Working with computers: 4.1/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Getting information: 4.2/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## O\*NET tasks

- Instruct, motivate, safeguard, and assist patients as they practice exercises or functional activities.
- Document patient information, such as notes on their progress.
- Observe patients during treatments to compile and evaluate data on their responses and progress and provide results to physical therapist in person or through progress notes.
- Secure patients into or onto therapy equipment.
- Confer with physical therapy staff or others to discuss and evaluate patient information for planning, modifying, or coordinating treatment.
- Transport patients to and from treatment areas, lifting and transferring them according to positioning requirements.

## Related careers that are also low-exposure

- [Surgical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/surgical-assistant): BLS exposure Low, median $66,800

## FAQ

**Will AI replace physical therapist assistants?**

Very unlikely. BLS rates physical therapist assistants among the occupations least exposed to AI, and most of the work is the kind current AI tools cannot do. 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 +23.0% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 18,500 openings a year.

**How exposed are physical therapist assistants to AI?**

BLS sorts 786 occupations into four relative categories: low, moderate, high and very high. Physical Therapist Assistants are in the low category, alongside 202 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 a physical therapist 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, evaluating information to determine compliance with standards and working with computers. The parts that hold up best are assisting and caring for others, performing general physical activities and performing for or working directly with the public. These come from O\*NET ratings of how important each activity is to the job, read through NueCareer's AI-resilience method.

**Is being a physical therapist assistant a safe career from AI?**

On NueCareer's AI-resilience score, built from O\*NET work activities, physical therapist assistants score 60 out of 100, higher than 85% of the occupations we score. The job pays a median of $68,380 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 physical therapist assistants are less exposed to AI?**

Surgical Assistant (low exposure, $66,800 median). Each is also in the low category, and most are listed by O\*NET as related to the work.

Full profile: https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-therapist-assistant.

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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