Occupational Therapy Aides
Healthcare Support Occupations- O*NET-SOC code
- 31-2012.00
Under close supervision of an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. These duties include preparing patient and treatment room.
- Data source: BLSPublished: 2026-08
Moderate· relative
LowFour relative bandsVery highGroup-level value
Scale, basis and source
Four relative bands (Low / Moderate / High / Very high)
831 detailed occupations in the BLS Employment Projections table. Assigned per National Employment Matrix (NEM) code, so occupations sharing a NEM code carry the same band
- Data source: AnthropicPublished: 2026-03
0.066
0.000Range of values carried here0.745Scale, basis and source
Observed exposure index, 0–1 as published
Mapped onto O*NET tasks
Published per SOC 2018 occupation; every O*NET occupation with the same SOC 2018 code carries this value
- Data source: ILOPublished: 2025
0.15
0.09Range of values carried here0.70Group-level value
Scale, basis and source
Generative AI exposure index, 0–1 as published
Published per ISCO-08 unit group. Linked to this occupation, wholly or in part, by applying U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics crosswalks (ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC, 2010 SOC to 2018 SOC) as published
What kind of figure this source publishes
The BLS category is a relative rank, not an absolute level, and it is not a first-hand measurement: it groups an occupation's percentile ranks across several published studies into four bands. It is not an employment or wage forecast, not a probability of adoption, and it does not separate automation from augmentation.
Task-level exposure
Exposed tasks only15 rated tasks · 4 tasks with β ≥ 0.5 (26.7%)
β = direct exposure (E1) + 0.5 × exposure when tools are available (E2), per the source repository's definition.
- Source unit: O*NET 27.2 tasks → O*NET 31.0 occupation code
- All rated tasks are in the O*NET 31.0 task list.
- Source
- OpenAI "GPTs are GPTs" exposure rubric
- Release
- gh-main-0471612
- License
- MIT License, Copyright (c) 2024 OpenAI
| Task (O*NET 20.1) | Claude.aiRaw / share % |
|---|---|
Observe patients' attendance, progress, attitudes, and accomplishments and record and maintain information in client records.31-2012.00 | 0.0022100.0 |
| Not observed on any surface — 14 task(s) — These tasks have no row in the source for this release. The 0 in the share row is a display-stage composition ratio; absence is what the — in the raw row states. | |
Encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals. | —0 |
Report to supervisors or therapists, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, attendance, and accomplishments. | —0 |
Manage intradepartmental infection control and equipment security. | —0 |
Evaluate the living skills and capacities of physically, developmentally, or emotionally disabled clients. | —0 |
Prepare and maintain work area, materials, and equipment and maintain inventory of treatment and educational supplies. | —0 |
Instruct patients and families in work, social, and living skills, the care and use of adaptive equipment, and other skills to facilitate home and work adjustment to disability. | —0 |
Supervise patients in choosing and completing work assignments or arts and crafts projects. | —0 |
Assist occupational therapists in planning, implementing, and administering therapy programs to restore, reinforce, and enhance performance, using selected activities and special equipment. | —0 |
Perform clerical, administrative, and secretarial duties, such as answering phones, restocking and ordering supplies, filling out paperwork, and scheduling appointments. | —0 |
Demonstrate therapy techniques, such as manual and creative arts and games. | —0 |
Transport patients to and from the occupational therapy work area. | —0 |
Adjust and repair assistive devices and make adaptive changes to other equipment and to environments. | —0 |
Assist educational specialists or clinical psychologists in administering situational or diagnostic tests to measure client's abilities or progress. | —0 |
Accompany patients on outings, providing transportation when necessary. | —0 |
Values in this tab are predicted labels, not observations. Eloundou et al. (2023) published two rating regimes — human raters and GPT-4 — and the β shown here is derived from the GPT-4 rater basis alone; the same task can take a different value under the other regime. The unit and the meaning differ from the observed shares (%) in the other tabs, so do not place them on the same axis.
| Task (O*NET 27.2) | βE1 + 0.5 × E2 |
|---|---|
Report to supervisors or therapists, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, attendance, and accomplishments.O*NET Task ID 9399 | 1.0 |
Observe patients' attendance, progress, attitudes, and accomplishments and record and maintain information in client records.O*NET Task ID 9400 | 1.0 |
Perform clerical, administrative, and secretarial duties, such as answering phones, restocking and ordering supplies, filling out paperwork, and scheduling appointments.O*NET Task ID 9407 | 1.0 |
Assist educational specialists or clinical psychologists in administering situational or diagnostic tests to measure client's abilities or progress.O*NET Task ID 9411 | 0.5 |
Encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals.O*NET Task ID 9398 | 0.0 |
Manage intradepartmental infection control and equipment security.O*NET Task ID 9401 | 0.0 |
Evaluate the living skills and capacities of physically, developmentally, or emotionally disabled clients.O*NET Task ID 9402 | 0.0 |
Prepare and maintain work area, materials, and equipment and maintain inventory of treatment and educational supplies.O*NET Task ID 9403 | 0.0 |
Instruct patients and families in work, social, and living skills, the care and use of adaptive equipment, and other skills to facilitate home and work adjustment to disability.O*NET Task ID 9404 | 0.0 |
Supervise patients in choosing and completing work assignments or arts and crafts projects.O*NET Task ID 9405 | 0.0 |
Assist occupational therapists in planning, implementing, and administering therapy programs to restore, reinforce, and enhance performance, using selected activities and special equipment.O*NET Task ID 9406 | 0.0 |
Demonstrate therapy techniques, such as manual and creative arts and games.O*NET Task ID 9408 | 0.0 |
Transport patients to and from the occupational therapy work area.O*NET Task ID 9409 | 0.0 |
Adjust and repair assistive devices and make adaptive changes to other equipment and to environments.O*NET Task ID 9410 | 0.0 |
Accompany patients on outings, providing transportation when necessary.O*NET Task ID 9412 | 0.0 |
β = E1 + 0.5 × E2 · E1 = tasks where direct LLM access alone cuts time by at least 50%, E2 = tasks where software built on top of an LLM cuts time by at least 50%. Values take only 0 / 0.5 / 1.0.
Data sources & licenses — O*NET®, Anthropic Economic Index, Eloundou et al. (2023): see full notices on the Credits page
All O*NET 31.0 task statements (15)
All O*NET 31.0 task statements for this occupation (English, as published; task type core or supplemental). Exposure values are not listed here; they are in the table above, next to each task statement as worded in the O*NET version each source used.
| Task (O*NET 31.0) | Type |
|---|---|
| Encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals. | Core |
| Report to supervisors or therapists, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, attendance, and accomplishments. | Core |
| Observe patients' attendance, progress, attitudes, and accomplishments and record and maintain information in client records. | Core |
| Manage intradepartmental infection control and equipment security. | Core |
| Prepare and maintain work area, materials, and equipment and maintain inventory of treatment and educational supplies. | Core |
| Instruct patients and families in work, social, and living skills, the care and use of adaptive equipment, and other skills to facilitate home and work adjustment to disability. | Core |
| Supervise patients in choosing and completing work assignments or arts and crafts projects. | Core |
| Assist occupational therapists in planning, implementing, and administering therapy programs to restore, reinforce, and enhance performance, using selected activities and special equipment. | Core |
| Perform clerical, administrative, and secretarial duties, such as answering phones, restocking and ordering supplies, filling out paperwork, and scheduling appointments. | Core |
| Demonstrate therapy techniques, such as manual and creative arts and games. | Core |
| Transport patients to and from the occupational therapy work area. | Core |
| Adjust and repair assistive devices and make adaptive changes to other equipment and to environments. | Core |
| Evaluate the living skills and capacities of clients with physical, developmental, or mental health disabilities. | Supplemental |
| Assist educational specialists or clinical psychologists in administering situational or diagnostic tests to measure client's abilities or progress. | Supplemental |
| Accompany patients on outings, providing transportation when necessary. | Supplemental |
0.42/ 3· Robot exposure index
Scale, basis and source
Each physical task is graded 0–3 by the setting in which robots that have been deployed, sold or demonstrated could do it (0 none · 1 purpose-built robot settings such as a fenced machine cell or a bottling line · 2 structured facilities such as a hospital pharmacy or a container port · 3 unstructured settings such as a private home or a construction site), and the grades are averaged by share of working time
Physical tasks among this occupation's O*NET 29.3 tasks
Anthropic estimated the grades and time shares with Claude Opus 5 using web search, as of 2026.
The robot exposure index is a different measure from the AI exposure figures on this site and cannot be added to or compared with them. It does not measure actual adoption or cost, and 0 also covers occupations with no physical tasks.
Tier of each physical task
Robot environment tiers (E0–E3)
E0 noneDetails
Rated not doable by robots that have been deployed, sold or demonstrated, even in a purpose-built setting
E1 purpose-built robot settingsDetails
Rated doable in a setting built around the machine, such as a fenced machine cell or a bottling line
E2 structured facilitiesDetails
Rated doable in a human work facility that an institution keeps to a working standard, such as a hospital pharmacy or a container port
E3 unstructured settingsDetails
Rated doable in a setting that no institution keeps to a working standard, such as a private home or a construction site
Only tasks classified as physical are listed; other tasks have no tier in the source.
| Task (O*NET 29.3) | Robot environment tier |
|---|---|
| Encourage patients and attend to their physical needs to facilitate the attainment of therapeutic goals. | E0 none |
| Manage intradepartmental infection control and equipment security. | E1 purpose-built robot settings |
| Prepare and maintain work area, materials, and equipment and maintain inventory of treatment and educational supplies. | E1 purpose-built robot settings |
| Assist occupational therapists in planning, implementing, and administering therapy programs to restore, reinforce, and enhance performance, using selected activities and special equipment. | E0 none |
| Perform clerical, administrative, and secretarial duties, such as answering phones, restocking and ordering supplies, filling out paperwork, and scheduling appointments. | E0 none |
| Demonstrate therapy techniques, such as manual and creative arts and games. | E2 structured facilities |
| Transport patients to and from the occupational therapy work area. | E1 purpose-built robot settings |
| Adjust and repair assistive devices and make adaptive changes to other equipment and to environments. | E1 purpose-built robot settings |
| Assist educational specialists or clinical psychologists in administering situational or diagnostic tests to measure client's abilities or progress. | E0 none |
| Accompany patients on outings, providing transportation when necessary. | E0 none |
Occupation information
Employment outlook (BLS)
- Employment, 2025
- 4K
- Projected employment, 2035
- 5K
- Change (2025–35)
- +3.6%
- Median annual wage, 2025
- $39,160
- Typical education needed for entry
- High school diploma or equivalent
Korea classification links (KSCO)
Links from the current release of the Korea Occupation Direct Crosswalk v1.1, made by AI Changing Work. Relation values are read from the O*NET-SOC occupation side.
| KSCO code | KSCO title | Relation | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 42902 | 치료사 보조원 | This occupation is narrower | confirmed |
Relation and status definitions(kr-direct v1.1)
ILO occupational description
AI Changing Work links the ISCO-08 unit groups below to this occupation by applying the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics crosswalks (2018 SOC to 2010 SOC, 2010 SOC to ISCO-08) as published, without case-by-case selection; each link may be whole or partial.
- ISCO-08 5329Personal Care Workers in Health Services Not Elsewhere Classified
The definition, tasks and examples below are the ILO's description of that unit group, not of this occupation.
This unit group covers providers of routine health and personal care support services not classified elsewhere in Minor Group 532: Personal Care Workers in Health Services. For instance, the group includes occupations such as dental aide, sterilization aide, hospital orderly, medical imaging assistant and pharmacy aide.
Tasks
- In such cases tasks would include -
- (a) cleaning and sterilizing surgical, dental and pharmaceutical instruments, bottles, beakers and other equipment;
- (b) labelling drugs, chemicals and other pharmaceutical preparations and replenishing stock on shelves;
- (c) lifting, turning and moving patients and transporting them in wheelchairs or on moveable beds;
- (d) preparing patients for examination or treatment;
- (e) setting up instrument trays, preparing materials, and assisting dentists or radiographers during procedures;
- (f) exposing diagnostic X-rays.
Example occupations
Dental aide · First-aid attendant · Hospital orderly · Medical imaging assistant · Pharmacy aide · Phlebotomist · Sterilization aide
Sources: ILO ISCO-08 — details: Credits
ESCO occupational vocabulary
Each entry below is matched to this occupation in the published ESCO-O*NET Crosswalk (version 1, 2022). The match types are that crosswalk's; the wording is AI Changing Work's.
- occupational therapy assistantESCO 2269.5This occupation is narrower
Occupational therapy assistants support occupational therapists by working with people and communities to enhance their ability to engage in the occupations they want to, need to, or are expected to do, or by modifying the occupation or the environment to better support their occupational engagement. They work under the supervision of an occupational therapist.
Source: European Commission, DG EMPL — ESCO API 2026-08-08 (bridge v1.2.1)
License: CC BY 4.0 (EU Reuse Notice)
ESCO reuse terms and the modification notice are in Credits.
France classification links (ROME)
AI Changing Work's links between this occupation and ROME 4.0 job profiles, judged with AI models. Relations are read from this occupation's side. Links marked “provisional” were adopted on the judgments of two judges from the same model family (Claude) alone, or by an operator rule applied to their judgments, so they rest on weaker evidence than confirmed links.
| ROME code | ROME title (French) | Relation |
|---|---|---|
| J1403 | Ergothérapeute | Related, not a match |
Source: France Travail — Répertoire Opérationnel des Métiers et des Emplois (ROME 4.0), version 61, last updated 15 June 2026 (https://www.data.gouv.fr/datasets/repertoire-operationnel-des-metiers-et-des-emplois-rome). Licence Ouverte 2.0.
ROME codes and titles are reproduced unchanged; the links to O*NET-SOC occupations are AI Changing Work's own judgment and are not a France Travail correspondence.
(AI Changing Work link release: fr-direct v1)
Spain classification links (CNO-11)
AI Changing Work's links between this occupation and CNO-11 occupations, judged with AI models. Relations are read from this occupation's side.
| CNO-11 code | CNO-11 title (Spanish) | Relation |
|---|---|---|
| 5629 | Trabajadores de los cuidados a las personas en servicios de salud no clasificados bajo otros epígrafes | This occupation is narrower |
| 2156 | Terapeutas ocupacionales | Related, not a match |
Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), National Classification of Occupations 2011 (CNO-11, Royal Decree 1591/2010) — www.ine.es · Licensed CC BY 4.0. CNO-11 codes and Spanish titles are reproduced unchanged; the links to O*NET occupations are AI Changing Work's own judgment and are not an INE correspondence.
(AI Changing Work link release: es-direct v1)
Germany classification links (KldB)
AI Changing Work's links between this occupation and KldB occupations, judged with AI models. Relations are read from this occupation's side.
| KldB code | KldB title (German) | Relation |
|---|---|---|
| 81722 | Berufe in der Ergotherapie - fachlich ausgerichtete Tätigkeiten | Related, not a match |
Source: © Statistik der Bundesagentur für Arbeit — Klassifikation der Berufe 2010 – überarbeitete Fassung 2020, https://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de. KldB codes and titles are reproduced unchanged; the links to O*NET occupations are AI Changing Work's own mapping (eigene Zuordnung) and are not a Bundesagentur für Arbeit correspondence.
(AI Changing Work link release: de-direct v1)
Japan classification links (JSCO)
AI Changing Work's links between this occupation and JSCO occupations, judged with AI models. Relations are read from this occupation's side.
| JSCO code | JSCO title (Japanese) | Relation |
|---|---|---|
| 379 | その他の保健医療サービス職業従事者 | This occupation is narrower |
Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), Japan Standard Occupational Classification (Dec. 2009, MIC Notification No. 555). JSCO codes and Japanese titles are reproduced unchanged; the links to O*NET occupations are AI Changing Work's own judgment and are not a MIC correspondence.
(AI Changing Work link release: jp-direct v1)
Sources, licenses and AI Changing Work's modification and translation notices for this page: Credits & sources