Music Therapists
In short: today's best AI models could do about 67% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 70% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 30% of the time, stays with people.
Plan, organize, direct, or assess clinical and evidenced-based music therapy interventions to positively influence individuals' physical, psychological, cognitive, or behavioral status.
$77,930 a year (for the broader BLS group this job sits in).
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on27 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet1 h
- Stays with people12 h
Music Therapists, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 27 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 1 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 12 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: 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 (about 3 h); Design music therapy experiences, using various musical elements to meet client's goals or objectives (about 3 h); Integrate behavioral, developmental, improvisational, medical, or neurological approaches into music therapy treatments (about 3 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 70%
- 5%
- 25%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 1%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 57%. Today's estimate: 67%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.064% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 214th largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 2 of its 30 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.12% to 0.082% (released February and March 2025); 0.04% to 0.048% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.068% to 0.064% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.12% | 150 of 708 | 8 of 30 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.082% | 189 of 703 | 9 of 30 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.04% | 273 of 655 | 4 of 30 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.064% | 209 of 672 | 6 of 30 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.048% | 255 of 677 | 6 of 30 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.068% | 205 of 434 | 2 of 30 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.064% | 214 of 447 | 2 of 30 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 22% of this job's working time as physical work. For 0% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere. 0.00 of 3.
- Not physical 78%
- No robot shown 22%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 30 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 9% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| 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.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 1.3 h38 min to 2.5 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Design music therapy experiences, using various musical elements to meet client's goals or objectives.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 7% | 42 min21 min to 1.3 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Integrate behavioral, developmental, improvisational, medical, or neurological approaches into music therapy treatments.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 1.1 h25 min to 2.1 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Apply current technology to music therapy practices.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 2.1 h50 min to 4.2 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Sing or play musical instruments, such as keyboard, guitar, or percussion instruments.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Assess client functioning levels, strengths, and areas of need in terms of perceptual, sensory, affective, communicative, musical, physical, cognitive, social, spiritual, or other abilities.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 5% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Compose, arrange, or adapt music for music therapy treatments.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | 99%Half by now | |
| 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.Done several times a day by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Document evaluations, treatment plans, case summaries, or progress or other reports related to individual clients or client groups.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 4% | 33 min17 min to 1.1 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Gather diagnostic data from sources such as case documentation, observations of clients, or interviews with clients or family members.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Improvise instrumentally, vocally, or physically to meet client's therapeutic needs.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Music Therapists is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 67% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 70% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (69% to 70% across the three paces the site shows). Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Music Therapists come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: 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 (100% of the task's time now); Design music therapy experiences, using various musical elements to meet client's goals or objectives (100% of the task's time now); and Integrate behavioral, developmental, improvisational, medical, or neurological approaches into music therapy treatments (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Music Therapists stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: 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; Sing or play musical instruments, such as keyboard, guitar, or percussion instruments; and 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. Together such tasks are about 30% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Music Therapists?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.064% went to this job's tasks, the 214th largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 2 of its 30 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 4%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Music Therapists?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 22% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 0% of the working time. Its index is 0.00 of 3. A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 30 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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