Will AI replace physical therapists?

Not on current evidence. Less than 30 minutes of a typical shift goes to tasks that AI or robots are doing today. The other 7h 53m (99%) stays with people. Separately, BLS expects about 11.9% more of these jobs by 2035 (all jobs: +3.5%).

AI shows up regularly in 1 of 24 tasks, about 7m of a typical shift. The biggest ones:

• Provide educational information about physical therapy or physical therapists, injury prevention, ergonomics, or ways to promote health. (6m a shift, AI mostly does it alone)

Not in workplaces like this one, based on a 2026 review of robot deployments. 2 more tasks have only been done in factory setups built around the machine, so they stay with people here. For 7 physical tasks, no robot has shown it can do the work yet.

7h 53m of a typical shift, or 99%, goes to tasks with no AI or robot evidence yet. No AI usage or robot deployment has shown up for these so far. The biggest:

• 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. (2h 21m a shift)
• Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer. (1h 4m a shift)
• Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention. (51m a shift)
• Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling. (38m a shift)
• Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit. (26m a shift)

We track 1 sourced company move that affects this job. Most recent:

• Jul 28, 2026: Net Health adds AI scribe for PT, OT and speech therapy notes (Rolling out)

On Indeed, job postings in the Therapy sector are at 188% of their February 2020 level (all U.S. postings: 104%), up 3.2% from a year earlier, as of Oct 9, 2026. BLS separately expects about 13,000 openings a year in this job through 2035. Across all U.S. postings, 7.3% now mention AI skills. Sector postings cover more than this one job and move for many reasons besides AI.

The median pay is about $102,760 a year ($49.40 an hour), 102% above the median for all U.S. jobs ($50,980). Most people in this job earn between $77,140 and $135,140 a year; that range covers the middle 80%. Pay figures are from BLS, May 2025, and vary a lot by state and employer.

BLS projects growth of 11.9% from 2025 to 2035, compared with 3.5% growth for all jobs. That's about 318,000 jobs in 2035. It expects about 13,000 openings a year, mostly from people retiring or changing careers. These projections don't single out AI as a cause.

About 267,000 people in the U.S., roughly 0.17% of all workers (BLS, May 2025). That makes it the 141st largest of the 796 jobs on this site. BLS expects about 318,000 in 2035.

The most common requirement is a doctoral degree: about 47% of people in the job said so in the official O*NET survey. O*NET rates the job at level 5 of 5 for preparation, which usually means: graduate degree. Requirements vary by state and employer, especially for licensed work.

These come from the job's official skill ratings and from the tasks that AI and robots touch least today. Building them keeps you strong in the parts of the work that still need a person:

• Skills that matter more here than in most jobs: Service Orientation, Social Perceptiveness, Time Management, Monitoring
• Get strong at the parts of the job that stay with people (listed above), which take 7h 53m of a typical shift
• Tools employers list: eClinicalWorks EHR software, MEDITECH software, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office software, Microsoft Outlook
• Learn to use AI well on the tasks where it already shows up in this job (listed above)

These use similar skills. Matches come from 109 official ratings of skills, knowledge and work activities, and each needs the same or less preparation unless the official list relates the jobs directly:

• Occupational Therapists (19m touched, $100k median pay)
• Nurse Midwives (28m touched, $134k median pay)
• Physician Assistants (35m touched, $136k median pay)
• Nurse Practitioners (59m touched, $132k median pay)
• Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians (0m touched, $266k median pay)

Each task carries its own evidence label. For this job: 1 observed in real AI use, 23 with no AI or robot evidence found. The minutes per task are estimates, not measured hours, and "no evidence" doesn't prove a task is safe.