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Respiratory Therapist

🇺🇸 United States · Healthcare
Watch closely#578 of 790 jobs in the United States · Among the safest 27%

My Job Lifespan

11 yrs 11 mo
00days 00:00:00:000

until AI starts replacing people in this job
Sep 8, 2038 · 4364 days left

Closed-loop ventilation and AI weaning cut bedside titration, but airway care, transport and suctioning need hands; NBRC licensure in 49 states keeps ICU staff.

AI vs Humans: whose side are you on?

Replacement riskMedium
Human share in 204665%
Growth 24–34+8%

Estimated AI timeline

AI impact · AI-assisted
2026 · Now2056
Likely range 6 yrs 11 mo – 19 yrs 11 mo

Respiratory Therapist: what AI changes and what stays

A respiratory therapist adjusts a patient's ventilator settings by watching their chest and the numbers together, then physically suctions an airway or coaches someone through a breathing treatment when a machine alone can't tell what's actually needed.

What part of ventilator care does AI already manage?

Closed-loop ventilators that adjust their own settings based on a patient's readings, and AI that flags when someone is ready to come off a machine, already handle a fair amount of the minute-by-minute titration that used to take a therapist walking back and forth between beds, well ahead of any real change in how many therapists a unit actually needs.

Why does a hospital still need a therapist at the bedside?

Managing an airway, physically moving a patient during transport, and suctioning a lung by hand are tasks a ventilator's software doesn't reach, and nearly every state requires a specific national credential to do this work in a hospital. This site rates that licensing barrier as moderate, and still expects most of today's bedside work to need a person two decades out.

What should someone training in this field build comfort with?

Since software increasingly handles routine ventilator adjustment, the more durable skill is hands-on airway management and comfort working fast during a transport or a code, the parts of the job a machine still can't take over. A degree in respiratory therapy followed by the national credentialing exam and a state license is the standard path in.

Years and figures are YOU’RE NEXT estimates based on public data and AI analysis. Written

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