# Physical Therapists

> Assess, plan, organize, and participate in rehabilitative programs that improve mobility, relieve pain, increase strength, and improve or correct disabling conditions resulting from disease or injury.

- **SOC code:** 29-1123.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-29-1123-00
- **Also known as:** Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT), Home Care Physical Therapist (Home Care PT), Inpatient Physical Therapist (Inpatient PT), Pediatric Physical Therapist (Pediatric PT), Acute Care PT (Acute Care Physical Therapist), Outpatient Physical Therapist (Outpatient PT), Registered Physical Therapist (RPT), Therapist
- **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):
- Plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or prevent physical dysfunction in patients.
- Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.
- Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer.
- Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.
- Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home.
- Confer with the patient, medical practitioners, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or assess the intervention program.
- Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling.
- Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions.
- Test and measure patient's strength, motor development and function, sensory perception, functional capacity, or respiratory or circulatory efficiency and record data.
- Direct, supervise, assess, and communicate with supportive personnel.
- Review physician's referral and patient's medical records to help determine diagnosis and physical therapy treatment required.
- Identify and document goals, anticipated progress, and plans for reevaluation.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Customer and Personal Service _(knowledge)_
- Therapy and Counseling _(knowledge)_
- Medicine and Dentistry _(knowledge)_
- Psychology _(knowledge)_
- Reading Comprehension _(essential_skill)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Speaking _(essential_skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(essential_skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(transferable_skill)_
- Service Orientation _(transferable_skill)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Written Comprehension _(ability)_

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

**Tools & technology:**
- eClinicalWorks EHR software _(hot technology)_
- MEDITECH software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- Advantage Software Physical Therapy Advantage
- Biometrics video game software
- Cedaron Dexter Evaluation & Impairment Rating
- Clinicient Insight
- Exercise routine creation software
- Hands On Technology TheraWriter.PT

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 42nd percentile (Moderate) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 39th percentile (Moderate) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 32nd percentile (Low) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 60th percentile (Moderate) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 15th percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** no — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 10.9% growth (Growing fast); 13.2k annual openings; 267.2k → 296.4k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $101,020; 248,630 employed.

## How people actually use AI here

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

- **Automation vs augmentation:** 20% automation, 58% augmentation (usage-weighted).
- **Autonomy median:** 4.0 (higher = AI acts more independently).
- **Dominant collaboration mode:** learning.

**Tasks most handed to AI here:**
- Provide educational information about physical therapy or physical therapists, injury prevention, ergonomics, or ways to promote health. _(2.6% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or prevent physical dysfunction in patients. _(0.8% of measured AI use; task iteration)_
- Provide information to the patient about the proposed intervention, its material risks and expected benefits, and any reasonable alternatives. _(0.4% of measured AI use)_
- Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home. _(0.3% of measured AI use)_

**Example prompts (honest phrasings of the tasks above — starting points, not endorsed instructions):**
- Help me provide educational information about physical therapy or physical therapists, injury prevention, ergonomics, or ways to promote health.
- Help me plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or prevent physical dysfunction in patients.
- Help me provide information to the patient about the proposed intervention, its material risks and expected benefits, and any reasonable alternatives.
- Help me instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home.

## 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-29-1123-00_