AI Resilience Report forRespiratory Therapists

Right now, AI in respiratory care is mostly helping therapists — not replacing them. A 2026 scoping review in npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine found that in pulmonary function testing, algorithms detect technical errors and classify spirometric patterns, some claiming to outperforming pulmonologists, and that for monitoring and prediction, AI helps shorten weaning from mechanical ventilation and guides closed-loop strategies for acute respiratory distress. A July 2025 Cochrane review of automated weaning systems found they probably reduce the time on the ventilator by around 24%, or 1.7 days in adults and 16 hours in children, and probably reduce the length of stay in the intensive care unit by around 14%.

So the ventilator itself is getting smarter, but a respiratory therapist still has to set it up, watch the patient, troubleshoot alarms, and make judgment calls. Hands-on tasks like emergency CPR, patient transport, and bedside lung-capacity tests ^[1] — which O*NET rates as only 4–8% automatable — remain firmly human work. Even the AARC's 2026–2028 Strategic Plan ^[2] frames AI as "knowledge assistance" to support members, not a replacement for them.

Adoption is moving steadily but cautiously. On the "speed up" side, hospitals face a real labor crunch: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of respiratory therapists will grow 12% from 2024 to 2034, much faster than average, with about 8,800 openings each year ^[1], and Fusion Medical Staffing notes a wave of retirements and rising chronic lung disease driving demand ^[3]. That shortage pushes hospitals to buy smart ventilators and AI diagnostic tools that stretch each RT further.

Slowing things down: a Frontiers in Digital Health review notes the field is still in an "evolution phase," needing widely accepted standards before broad clinical use ^[4], and the Nature review warns that realizing these benefits will require rigorous multicentre validation and real-world evidence, plus proactive bias detection and mitigation with inclusive sampling and equity audits. Capital costs for new ventilator fleets, FDA oversight, and patient-safety culture all slow the rollout. The encouraging takeaway: AI is reshaping the tools RTs use, but the empathy, quick thinking, and physical care this job demands keep humans firmly at the bedside.