AI exposure by occupation, O*NET 29-2053.00
Will AI replace Psychiatric Technicians?
Psychiatric Technicians: AI can already handle 1 of 16 tasks; the work mostly needs a standard-tier model.
Have a team in this role?
Get your free 10-role sample: send this role and up to nine others, and a founder sends a board-pack PDF within two business days.
Every task, scored
The 16 tasks O*NET 30.3 lists for Psychiatric Technicians, from most to least exposed. 1 reach 60 or more, the level at which AI already handles a task.
| Task | AI exposure | Evidence | Model tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interview new patients to complete admission forms, to assess their mental health status, or to obtain their mental health and treatment history. | Estimated | Efficient | |
| Provide nursing, psychiatric, or personal care to patients with cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities. | Estimated | Efficient | |
| Collaborate with or assist doctors, psychologists, or rehabilitation therapists in working with patients with cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities to treat, rehabilitate, and return patients to the community. | Estimated | Standard | |
| Develop or teach strategies to promote client wellness and independence. | Estimated | Efficient | |
| Encourage patients to develop work skills and to participate in social, recreational, or other therapeutic activities that enhance interpersonal skills or develop social relationships. | Observed | Frontier | |
| Restrain violent, potentially violent, or suicidal patients by verbal or physical means as required. | Estimated | Efficient | |
| Observe and influence patients' behavior, communicating and interacting with them and teaching, counseling, or befriending them. | Estimated | Standard | |
| Train or instruct new employees on procedures to follow with psychiatric patients. | Estimated | Efficient | |
| Administer oral medications or hypodermic injections, following physician's prescriptions and hospital procedures. | Estimated | Efficient | |
| Take and record measures of patients' physical condition, using devices such as thermometers or blood pressure gauges. | Estimated | Efficient | |
| Aid patients in performing tasks, such as bathing or keeping beds, clothing, or living areas clean. | Estimated | Efficient | |
| Escort patients to medical appointments. | Estimated | Efficient | |
| Contact patients' relatives to arrange family conferences. | Estimated | Efficient | |
| Issue medications from dispensary and maintain records in accordance with specified procedures. | Estimated | Efficient | |
| Lead prescribed individual or group therapy sessions as part of specific therapeutic procedures. | Estimated | No tier | |
| Monitor patients' physical and emotional well-being and report unusual behavior or physical ailments to medical staff. | Estimated | No tier |
Observed: scored from AI use recorded in the Anthropic Economic Index (June 2026 release), 1 of 16 tasks. Estimated: scored from the task's O*NET 30.3 work activity, 15 of 16. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central the task is. Model tier is the lowest tier that can do the task under the published rubric; "No tier" marks hands-on work.
The model tier this role needs
A standard-tier model or lower covers 81% of the role's importance-weighted task work. 87% of the work is something AI can address at some tier, and 13% is hands-on.
Efficient, standard and frontier tiers come from the JobRoute model tier reference. The recommended tier is the lowest one that covers 80% of the work AI can address. How the method works.
Wages, employment and outlook
- US employment
- 156,960
- Median annual wage
- $45,130
- Middle half of earners
- $38,430 to $50,160
- Projected change, 2024 to 2034
- +20.0%
Employment and wages: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national. Projection: BLS Employment Projections 2024 to 2034.
Adjacent roles
The occupations that reuse the most of this role's skills, with the usual time to move. These are the first places to look when you plan to redeploy or retrain people in this role.
- Psychiatric Aides 77% skill overlap, about 8 months to move Exposure29
- Pharmacy Technicians 63% skill overlap, about 13 months to move Exposure40
- Psychiatrists 63% skill overlap, about 13 months to move Exposure34
- Mental Health Counselors 61% skill overlap, about 14 months to move Exposure43
- Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses 61% skill overlap, about 14 months to move Exposure35
Skill overlap and transition time from the JobRoute role adjacency graph on O*NET 30.3 skills.
Questions about Psychiatric Technicians and AI
Will AI replace Psychiatric Technicians?
AI already handles 1 of the 16 tasks O*NET lists for this occupation, at a task exposure of 60 or more, and the role's importance-weighted exposure is 34 out of 100. JobRoute scores tasks, not whole jobs, so the score shows how much of the work changes rather than whether the job disappears. BLS projects employment to change by +20.0% from 2024 to 2034.
What is the AI exposure of Psychiatric Technicians?
34 out of 100 on JobRoute's task exposure measure, the importance-weighted average of the role's O*NET task scores. Higher means more of the work is AI-doable today. 1 of the 16 task scores are observed in the Anthropic Economic Index (June 2026 release), and the other 15 are estimated from each task's O*NET work activity.
Which Psychiatric Technicians tasks can AI already do?
The tasks with the highest exposure are: Interview new patients to complete admission forms, to assess their mental health status, or to obtain their mental health and treatment history. It is the only task that reach 60 or more.
What AI model tier does this role need?
A standard-tier model or lower covers 81% of the role's importance-weighted task work. JobRoute assigns each task the lowest tier that can do it under a published rubric and recommends the lowest tier that covers 80% of the work AI can address.
How many people work as Psychiatric Technicians, and what do they earn?
156,960 people in the United States, with a median annual wage of $45,130 (BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025). BLS Employment Projections expect a change of +20.0% from 2024 to 2034.
How to cite
Data version 2026-11-02, JobRoute method v1.0.0. Download all occupations or this occupation as JSON. Methodology.
JobRoute (2026). AI exposure: Psychiatric Technicians. Data version 2026-11-02, method v1.0.0. Built on O*NET 30.3, BLS OEWS May 2025 and the Anthropic Economic Index (June 2026). CC BY 4.0. https://www.jobroute.ai/jobs/psychiatric-technicians
Have a team in this role?
Get your free 10-role sample. Send this role and up to nine others, with no employee data, and a founder sends a PDF in board-pack format within two business days.
A founder replies within one business day.