Professionals · code 2264

Physiotherapists

AI can write up the notes. It can't find where the pain actually comes from.

Keeping patient records is the one task AI could take a fair chunk of. It barely touches four of the seven, including physical assessments and hands-on treatment.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Physiotherapists assess, plan and implement rehabilitative programmes that improve or restore human motor functions, maximize movement ability, relieve pain syndromes, and treat or prevent physical challenges associated with injuries, diseases and other impairments. They apply a broad range of physical therapies and techniques such as movement, ultrasound, heating, laser and other techniques. Tasks include - (a) administering muscle, nerve, joint functional ability and other tests to identify and assess physical problems of patients; (b) establishing treatment goals with patients and designing treatment programmes to reduce physical pain, strengthen muscles, improve cardiothoracic, cardiovascular and respiratory functions, restore joint mobility and improve balance and coordination; (c) developing, implementing and monitoring programmes and treatments using the therapeutic properties of exercise, heat, cold, massage, manipulation, hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, ultraviolet and infra-red light and ultrasound in the treatment of patients; (d) instructing patients and their families in procedures to be continued outside clinical settings; (e) recording information on patients’ health status and responses to treatment in medical records-keeping systems, and sharing information with other health professionals as required to ensure continuing and comprehensive care; (f) developing and implementing programmes for screening and prevention of common physical ailments and disorders; (g) supervising the work of physiotherapy assistants and others. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Geriatric physical therapist - Manipulative therapist - Orthopaedic physical therapist - Paediatric physical therapist - Physical therapist - Physiotherapist Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Chiropractor - 2269 - Occupational therapist - 2269 - Osteopath - 2269 - Podiatrist - 2269 - Acupressure therapist - 3255 - Hydrotherapist - 3255 - Massage therapist - 3255 - Physiotherapy technician - 3255 - Shiatsu therapist - 3255

advanced physiotherapist
animal physiotherapist
physiotherapist

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

72 / 100

Mostly holds up against AI

AI can take a few chores off your plate, but most of the day is still yours.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Minimal Exposure

228 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 7 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 28.4 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 28.4 = 71.6.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Minimal Exposure”: A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't.

This job rates 48.7 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Physiotherapists 72

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

Clinical notes and records.
Home exercise programmes by app.
Screening and prevention materials.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

Assessing movement and pain.
Hands-on treatment.
Motivating patients through recovery.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

Remote rehab and virtual clinics.
Wearable movement tracking.
Care for older people and long-term conditions.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Low

30 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 67 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Some

49 how hands-on

A fair part of this job is hands-on, so robots would be needed for that part, not just software.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 30 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

49 How
hands-on

30 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs .

finger skill 36.6 · hand skill 36.6 · cramped spaces 17.2 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 56, against an average of 28. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

56
Recording information on patients' health status and responses to treatment in medical records-keeping systems, and sharing information with other health professionals as required to ensure continuing and comprehensive care

Medium
36
Developing and implementing programmes for screening and prevention of common physical ailments and disorders

Low
32
Supervising the work of physiotherapy assistants and others.

Low
23
Instructing patients and their families in procedures to be continued outside clinical settings

Very Low
19
Establishing treatment goals with patients and designing treatment programmes to reduce physical pain, strengthen muscles, improve cardiothoracic, cardiovascular and respiratory functions, restore joint mobility and improve balance and coordination

Very Low
17
Administering muscle, nerve, joint functional ability and other tests to identify and assess physical problems of patients

Very Low
17
Developing, implementing and monitoring programmes and treatments using the therapeutic properties of exercise, heat, cold, massage, manipulation, hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, ultraviolet and infra-red light and ultrasound in the treatment of patients

Very Low

7 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you: 67
AI does it for you: 30

Sidekick wins, by 37 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 2525

Meanwhile, in real life…

Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?

Out of every 100 conversations

worked through it together handed it over

The small print

Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job. This job makes up 0.22% of the conversations.

The data is sorted by US job, and this one matches 2 of them. We've combined them, counting each by how often it comes up in the conversations, so the busiest one counts most.

These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.

observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product

So, should physiotherapists be worried?

Short answer: not much. Some of the chores will change, and good riddance.

The records are moving. Recording patient information is rated Medium, and screening programmes and supervising assistants are Low; assessment and hands-on treatment rate Very Low. AI and apps take on notes and home exercise programmes; treatment stays human.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” family, averaging 61. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →