Acupuncturists

Right now, most acupuncture work is still done by people. There are some research projects using tech to help. For example, scientists have built a robot arm that can find acupuncture points and even insert needles in lab tests ^[1].

Other studies use AI on big data of past treatments to suggest which points work best for a patient ^[2]. But these are not common in clinics today. In practice, acupuncturists keep their own notes and give advice by hand, and they perform needling and massage themselves.

As one writer points out, “acupuncture is traditionally performed as a complex intervention, specialized to the patient” ^[3]. This means each treatment is unique, which is hard to standardize or automate. In short, automation in acupuncture is mostly experimental; daily tasks like record-keeping or patient coaching use normal software or apps, not AI, and the core hands-on treatments remain human-led ^{[1] [2]}.

Artificial intelligence may be slow to arrive in acupuncture clinics. Acupuncture is a small field (about 7,800 practitioners in the US ^[4]), so tech companies have less incentive to develop special AI tools for it. Also, experts note that AI would need lots of good acupuncture data and new clinical trials to earn trust ^[2].

Patients and acupuncturists often value the personal touch – one tech article even warns that a do-it-yourself AI acupuncture tool “removes the patient-practitioner relationship” ^[3]. In other words, people expect a human to understand their body and feelings. For these reasons (cost, small market, and social trust), AI helpers in acupuncture will likely grow slowly.

Humans still bring skills like careful listening, empathy, and fine needle technique that computers cannot match – at least for now ^{[2] [3]}.