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Technicians and associate professionals · code 3255

Physiotherapy technicians and assistants

Physiotherapy technicians and assistants provide physical therapeutic treatments to patients in circumstances where functional movement is threatened by injury, disease or impairment. Therapies are usually provided according to rehabilitative plans established by a physiotherapist or other health professional. Tasks include - (a) administering manual treatments such as massage therapy or pressure point therapy; (b) administering electrical modality treatments, ultrasound and other physical therapies using specialized techniques and equipment; (c) instructing, motivating, safeguarding and assisting patients as they practise physical exercises, relaxation techniques and functional activities; (d) conferring with physiotherapists or other health care providers to evaluate patient information for planning, modifying and coordinating treatment; (e) monitoring and recording patients’ progress during treatment, including measuring their range-of-joint motion and vital signs; (f) fitting patients for orthopaedic braces, prostheses and other physical support devices such as crutches, and instructing patients in the use of such devices. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Acupressure therapist - Electrotherapist - Hydrotherapist - Massage therapist - Physical rehabilitation technician - Physiotherapy technician - Shiatsu therapist Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Physiotherapist - 2264 - Chiropractor - 2269 - Occupational therapist - 2269 - Podiatrist - 2269

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 95 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • aromatherapist
  • shiatsu practitioner
  • massage therapist
  • physiotherapy assistant
  • animal therapist
  • sophrologist

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

83
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 17 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 17 = 83

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

42.3
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 5 US jobs

35.5
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 44.2 · hand skill 40.2 · cramped spaces 22.1 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on

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.

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 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 42.3 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.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 27.1, while the average is 17. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 27.1

    Monitoring and recording patients' progress during treatments, including measuring their range-of-joint motion and vital signs

    Low
  2. 22

    Conferring with physiotherapists or other health care providers to evaluate patient information for planning, modifying, and coordinating treatment

    Very Low
  3. 18.3

    Instructing, motivating, safeguarding and assisting patients as they practice physical exercises, relaxation techniques and functional activities

    Very Low
  4. 17

    Fitting patients for orthopaedic braces, prostheses and other physical supportive devices such as crutches, and instructing patients in the use of such devices.

    Very Low
  5. 10.5

    Administering electrical modality treatments, ultrasound and other physical therapies using specialized techniques and equipment

    Very Low
  6. 7.3

    Administering manual treatments such as massage therapy or pressure point therapy

    Very Low

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

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
51.5
AI does it for you
19.5

Helping wins by 32 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 4116, 4233

Compared with similar jobs

There are 82 jobs in the “Technicians and associate professionals” group, averaging 65.2. This one is above that.