Artificial intelligence in occupational therapy: Comparing ChatGPT and occupational therapist approaches in...

Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in supporting rehabilitation processes, offering benefits for both clients and therapists. This study aimed to explore the potential use of ChatGPT-an AI-powered online chatbot-in occupational therapy using clinical case scenarios and to compare the clinical decision-making approaches of ChatGPT and occupational therapists.

This study employed a comparative design to evaluate the clinical decision-making skills of ChatGPT and occupational therapists. A total of 111 occupational therapists and ChatGPT responded to 9 questions related to 3 different cases, including items on models and frames of reference, assessment, and intervention.

ChatGPT and occupational therapists demonstrated similar decision-making in one case for models and frames of reference, one case for assessments, and one case for interventions (p > 0.05). However, their decision-making differed in the other two cases (p < 0.05).

These findings underscore artificial intelligence's promising yet complex role in occupational therapy, highlighting how occupational therapists integrate multiple factors and individual client needs into their decision-making, in contrast to the algorithm-based reasoning of ChatGPT.