# Occupational Therapists

> Assess, plan, and organize rehabilitative programs that help build or restore vocational, homemaking, and daily living skills, as well as general independence, to persons with disabilities or developmental delays. Use therapeutic techniques, adapt the individual's environment, teach skills, and modify specific tasks that present barriers to the individual.

- **SOC code:** 29-1122.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-29-1122-00
- **Also known as:** Certified Hand Therapist (CHT), Occupational Therapist (OT), Pediatric Occupational Therapist (Pediatric OT), Registered Occupational Therapist (OTR), Assistive Technology Trainer, Early Intervention Occupational Therapist, Home Health Occupational Therapist, Industrial Rehabilitation Consultant
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Test and evaluate patients' physical and mental abilities and analyze medical data to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients.
- Complete and maintain necessary records.
- Plan, organize, and conduct occupational therapy programs in hospital, institutional, or community settings to help rehabilitate persons with disabilities because of illness, injury or psychological or developmental problems.
- Plan and implement programs and social activities to help patients learn work or school skills and adjust to handicaps.
- Train caregivers in providing for the needs of a patient during and after therapy.
- Evaluate patients' progress and prepare reports that detail progress.
- Select activities that will help individuals learn work and life-management skills within limits of their mental or physical capabilities.
- Lay out materials such as puzzles, scissors and eating utensils for use in therapy, and clean and repair these tools after therapy sessions.
- Consult with rehabilitation team to select activity programs or coordinate occupational therapy with other therapeutic activities.
- Design and create, or requisition, special supplies and equipment, such as splints, braces, and computer-aided adaptive equipment.
- Recommend changes in patients' work or living environments, consistent with their needs and capabilities.
- Develop and participate in health promotion programs, group activities, or discussions to promote client health, facilitate social adjustment, alleviate stress, and prevent physical or mental disability.

**Emerging tasks** (O*NET):
- Recommend adaptive equipment to individuals to increase independence in daily living activities.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Therapy and Counseling _(knowledge)_
- Psychology _(knowledge)_
- Customer and Personal Service _(knowledge)_
- Medicine and Dentistry _(knowledge)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Monitoring _(essential_skill)_
- Service Orientation _(transferable_skill)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- English Language _(knowledge)_
- Reading Comprehension _(essential_skill)_
- Writing _(essential_skill)_
- Speaking _(essential_skill)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Psychology _(Specialized Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Writing _(Common Skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Instructing _(Specialized Skill)_
- Inductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Learning Strategies _(Specialized Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- eClinicalWorks EHR software _(hot technology)_
- Facebook _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR
- Casamba Smart
- Computer drawing software
- Crick Software Clicker 4
- Duxbury Braille Translator
- Email software
- Fifth Walk BillingTracker

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 40th percentile (Moderate) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 51st percentile (Moderate) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 43rd percentile (Moderate) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 32nd percentile (Low) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 1st percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** no — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 13.8% growth (Growing fast); 10.2k annual openings; 160k → 182.1k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $98,340; 152,280 employed.

## How people actually use AI here

Anthropic Economic Index — measured AI conversations mapped to this occupation's tasks:

- **Automation vs augmentation:** 50% automation, 38% augmentation (usage-weighted).
- **Autonomy median:** 4.0 (higher = AI acts more independently).
- **Dominant collaboration mode:** directive.

**Tasks most handed to AI here:**
- Plan, organize, and conduct occupational therapy programs in hospital, institutional, or community settings to help rehabilitate those impaired because of illness, injury or psychological or developmental problems. _(0.4% of measured AI use; directive)_

**Example prompts (honest phrasings of the tasks above — starting points, not endorsed instructions):**
- Help me plan, organize, and conduct occupational therapy programs in hospital, institutional, or community settings to help rehabilitate those impaired because of illness, injury or psychological or developmental problems.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Frey & Osborne (2013)** (frey-osborne-automation) — academic. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/the-future-of-employment/
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-29-1122-00_