Career Explorer Healthcare (clinical)
Grows with AI
Athletic trainers
Evaluate and treat musculoskeletal injuries or illnesses. Provide preventive, therapeutic, emergency, and rehabilitative care.
Among the most resilient careers: more resilient than 81% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is moderate (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it moderate), and US jobs are projected to change by +12.7% by 2035, much faster than average. The work leans on ethical judgement and emotional intelligence.
AI can help with many of the tasks, and demand is still growing. Being fluent with AI is the edge here.
- Median pay (2025)
- $62,520
- Job growth to 2035
- +12.7%
- Openings a year
- 2,400
- People doing it (2025)
- 35,200
- Usual route in
- Master's degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Analyze health or medical data
- Advise others on healthcare or wellness issues
- Perform administrative or clerical activities
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Evaluate patient or client condition or treatment options
- Confer with healthcare or other professionals about patient care
- Develop patient or client care or treatment plans
What the work looks like
- Conduct an initial assessment of an athlete's injury or illness to provide emergency or continued care and to determine whether they should be referred to physicians for definitive diagnosis and treatment.
- Assess and report the progress of recovering athletes to coaches or physicians.
- Care for athletic injuries, using physical therapy equipment, techniques, or medication.
- Evaluate athletes' readiness to play and provide participation clearances when necessary and warranted.
- Perform general administrative tasks, such as keeping records or writing reports.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- More of these jobs, as the demand for athletic health care grows. Colleges and universities will increasingly hire athletic trainers to help student athletes prevent and recover from injuries as well as perform at their highest level.
- More of these jobs, as financial constraints faced by some academic institutions prompt them to contract athletic trainer services with hospitals to meet their athletic health care needs.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Nurse practitionersGrows with AI, Index 88, +41.0%
- OptometristsHuman edge, growing, Index 89, +9.5%
- AnesthesiologistsHuman edge, growing, Index 85, +3.6%
- Nurse anesthetistsHuman edge, growing, Index 95, +9.7%
Also known as: Athletic Instructor, Athletic Trainer, Certified Athletic Trainer, Personal Trainer, Athletic Lecturer, Resident Athletic Trainer, Women's Athletic Trainer.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.