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Physical Therapists Have The Most Secure Jobs in the AI Age, New Study Finds
04 Jun 2026
Physical therapists hold the most secure careers in America as artificial intelligence continues to reshape the workplace, according to new research by GoTu, the largest dental talent marketplace. The study examined 30 professions across automation risk, salary, job growth, unemployment rates, and human interaction to identify which careers are best protected from AI replacement.
With tools like ChatGPT now handling tasks once performed by people, the findings reveal a clear pattern: jobs requiring hands-on human contact, particularly in healthcare, are the hardest for machines to replicate. Receptionists, by contrast, face the highest automation risk of any profession studied, at 91%.
Physical therapists top the ranking with a stability score of 100 out of 100. Only 1 in 10 face any automation risk, the profession is projected to add roughly 30,000 new roles by 2036, and unemployment across the field sits at just 0.6%. The work demands constant hands-on patient care, a quality that remains beyond the reach of current AI systems.
"The healthcare sector offers the safest jobs, as surgeons and dentists also make the top 10 future-proof careers.” - GoTu Research, May 2026
Surgeons rank second, sharing the same 10% automation risk as physical therapists while commanding the highest salary of any profession in the study at $239,000 per year, nearly double most other secure careers. Unemployment in surgery sits at just 0.2%, among the lowest of any field.
Dentists claim third place with the single lowest automation risk in the entire study, at 8%. The profession pays an average of $179,000 annually, scores 94 out of 100 for human interaction, and maintains an unemployment rate below 1%.
Beyond healthcare, construction managers (4th) and police and detectives (5th) round out the top five. Both face a 13% automation risk, low by wider industry standards, while construction managers benefit from one of the fastest job growth rates in the study at 9% over the next decade. Law enforcement, meanwhile, records the lowest unemployment rate of any profession in the country.
Top 10 most stable careers in the age of AI
# | Job Title | Automation Risk | 10-yr Job Growth | Unemployment |
| 1 | Physical Therapists | 10% | 11% | 0.6% |
| 2 | Surgeons | 10% | 3% | 0.2% |
| 3 | Dentists | 8% | 4% | 0.9% |
| 4 | Construction Managers | 13% | 9% | 1.8% |
| 5 | Police and Detectives | 13% | 3% | 0.0% |
| 6 | Psychologists | 20% | 6% | 0.3% |
| 7 | Information Security Analysts | 53% | 29% | 2.1% |
| 8 | Dental Hygienists | 39% | 7% | 0.4% |
| 9 | Social Workers | 12% | 6% | 2.1% |
| 10 | Lawyers | 31% | 4% | 0.8% |
About the study
GoTu examined 30 different careers to identify which professions are best protected from AI-driven automation. The research combined automation risk scores, median annual salaries, 10-year job growth projections, occupation-level unemployment rates, and public interaction scores, measuring how much direct human contact each role requires, into a composite stability ranking.
