UK AI Exposure · Professional occupations
Occupational therapists
Occupational therapists work with people who have a physical or learning disability or mental illness, actively engaging them in purposeful activities in order to maximise self-confidence, independent functioning and well-being.
- Employees (UK)
- 43k
- Median annual pay
- £37,201
- Exposure score ?
- 1.0/10 Minimal 6.4/10 High strict reading · with tools is 6.4/10 with-tools reading · strict is 1.0/10
- Wage exposure
- £160m £1.02bn
Higher exposure than 53% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means
Most of this role's work is still genuinely hard for AI to do. Physical presence, bodily skill, high-context judgment, direct human care - the things that don't translate to text.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
You're not in the firing line today. But the frontier moves. Build enough AI fluency now that you can direct it for the parts of your work that could benefit. People in unexposed roles who understand AI become unusually valuable inside their organisations.
Most of the routine task inventory in this role can already be done by a capable LLM. That doesn't mean the role disappears - it means the shape changes, and one person can credibly do the work of several.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
Stop doing anything an LLM can do. Your edge is judgment, relationships, taste, and the parts of the work that require you to be in the room. The operators who notice this first and redesign their workflow around it will be paid for those things; the ones who cling to the old task list will compete against AI at AI's prices.
Where a project with Alex usually starts for this role
These are the highest-importance tasks a language model can already handle directly today. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around these, so they stop eating your team's time.
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Document evaluations, treatment plans, case summaries, or progress or other reports related to individual clients or client groups.
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Observe and document client reactions, progress, or other outcomes related to music therapy.
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Participate in continuing education.
These are the highest-importance tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around these — usually the difference between an LLM that can technically do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Design or provide music therapy experiences to address client needs, such as using music for self-care, adjusting to life changes, improving cognitive functioning, raising self-esteem, communicating, or controlling impulses.
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Design music therapy experiences, using various musical elements to meet client's goals or objectives.
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Sing or play musical instruments, such as keyboard, guitar, or percussion instruments.
Every role has three or four wedges like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days. Talk to Alex about a project →
The full task breakdown
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can already do unaided versus what still needs a human. Importance is O*NET's 1–5 rating of how central each task is to the role.
Tasks via O*NET "Music Therapists" (29-1129.02).
What AI can already do
4 of 30 tasks · unaided
Document evaluations, treatment plans, case summaries, or progress or other reports related to individual clients or client groups.
Observe and document client reactions, progress, or other outcomes related to music therapy.
Participate in continuing education.
Compose, arrange, or adapt music for music therapy treatments.
Where humans still hold the line
26 of 30 tasks
Design or provide music therapy experiences to address client needs, such as using music for self-care, adjusting to life changes, improving cognitive functioning, raising self-esteem, communicating, or controlling impulses.
Design music therapy experiences, using various musical elements to meet client's goals or objectives.
Sing or play musical instruments, such as keyboard, guitar, or percussion instruments.
Communicate with clients to build rapport, acknowledge their progress, or reflect upon their reactions to musical experiences.
Customize treatment programs for specific areas of music therapy, such as intellectual or developmental disabilities, educational settings, geriatrics, medical settings, mental health, physical disabilities, or wellness.
Establish client goals or objectives for music therapy treatment, considering client needs, capabilities, interests, overall therapeutic program, coordination of treatment, or length of treatment.
Assess client functioning levels, strengths, and areas of need in terms of perceptual, sensory, affective, communicative, musical, physical, cognitive, social, spiritual, or other abilities.
Improvise instrumentally, vocally, or physically to meet client's therapeutic needs.
Gather diagnostic data from sources such as case documentation, observations of clients, or interviews with clients or family members.
Plan or structure music therapy sessions to achieve appropriate transitions, pacing, sequencing, energy level, or intensity in accordance with treatment plans.
Engage clients in music experiences to identify client responses to different styles of music, types of musical experiences, such as improvising or listening, or elements of music, such as tempo or harmony.
Communicate client assessment findings and recommendations in oral, written, audio, video, or other forms.
Integrate behavioral, developmental, improvisational, medical, or neurological approaches into music therapy treatments.
Confer with professionals on client's treatment team to develop, coordinate, or integrate treatment plans.
Select or adapt musical instruments, musical equipment, or non-musical materials, such as adaptive devices or visual aids, to meet treatment objectives.
Identify and respond to emergency physical or mental health situations.
Analyze or synthesize client data to draw conclusions or make recommendations for therapy.
Collaborate with others to design or implement interdisciplinary treatment programs.
Conduct information sharing sessions, such as in-service workshops for other professionals, potential client groups, or the general community.
Apply selected research findings to practice.
Analyze data to determine the effectiveness of specific treatments or therapy approaches.
Supervise staff, volunteers, practicum students, or interns engaged in music therapy activities.
Assess the risks and benefits of treatment termination for clients.
Adapt existing or develop new music therapy assessment instruments or procedures to meet an individual client's needs.
Apply current technology to music therapy practices.
Conduct, or assist in the conduct of, music therapy research.
Tasks via O*NET "Music Therapists" (29-1129.02).
What AI can already do
22 of 30 tasks · with tools
Design or provide music therapy experiences to address client needs, such as using music for self-care, adjusting to life changes, improving cognitive functioning, raising self-esteem, communicating, or controlling impulses.
Design music therapy experiences, using various musical elements to meet client's goals or objectives.
Sing or play musical instruments, such as keyboard, guitar, or percussion instruments.
Customize treatment programs for specific areas of music therapy, such as intellectual or developmental disabilities, educational settings, geriatrics, medical settings, mental health, physical disabilities, or wellness.
Establish client goals or objectives for music therapy treatment, considering client needs, capabilities, interests, overall therapeutic program, coordination of treatment, or length of treatment.
Document evaluations, treatment plans, case summaries, or progress or other reports related to individual clients or client groups.
Observe and document client reactions, progress, or other outcomes related to music therapy.
Gather diagnostic data from sources such as case documentation, observations of clients, or interviews with clients or family members.
Plan or structure music therapy sessions to achieve appropriate transitions, pacing, sequencing, energy level, or intensity in accordance with treatment plans.
Engage clients in music experiences to identify client responses to different styles of music, types of musical experiences, such as improvising or listening, or elements of music, such as tempo or harmony.
Participate in continuing education.
Communicate client assessment findings and recommendations in oral, written, audio, video, or other forms.
Confer with professionals on client's treatment team to develop, coordinate, or integrate treatment plans.
Select or adapt musical instruments, musical equipment, or non-musical materials, such as adaptive devices or visual aids, to meet treatment objectives.
Compose, arrange, or adapt music for music therapy treatments.
Analyze or synthesize client data to draw conclusions or make recommendations for therapy.
Collaborate with others to design or implement interdisciplinary treatment programs.
Apply selected research findings to practice.
Analyze data to determine the effectiveness of specific treatments or therapy approaches.
Adapt existing or develop new music therapy assessment instruments or procedures to meet an individual client's needs.
Apply current technology to music therapy practices.
Conduct, or assist in the conduct of, music therapy research.
Where humans still hold the line
8 of 30 tasks
Communicate with clients to build rapport, acknowledge their progress, or reflect upon their reactions to musical experiences.
Assess client functioning levels, strengths, and areas of need in terms of perceptual, sensory, affective, communicative, musical, physical, cognitive, social, spiritual, or other abilities.
Improvise instrumentally, vocally, or physically to meet client's therapeutic needs.
Integrate behavioral, developmental, improvisational, medical, or neurological approaches into music therapy treatments.
Identify and respond to emergency physical or mental health situations.
Conduct information sharing sessions, such as in-service workshops for other professionals, potential client groups, or the general community.
Supervise staff, volunteers, practicum students, or interns engaged in music therapy activities.
Assess the risks and benefits of treatment termination for clients.
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Methodology
This role's exposure score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 GPT task labels, aggregated by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 via ISCO-08 (ONS Vol 2 coding index) and US SOC 2010 (BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional. ASHE covers employees only, so self-employed workers are not counted.
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