AI for occupational therapists: reports, NDIS and your obligations

AI for occupational therapists is most useful for the writing that eats into clinical time: turning session notes into structured OT reports, drafting NDIS plan reassessment and assistive technology reports, writing letters, and producing plain-language handouts. It is least useful, and riskiest, when it's asked to supply clinical judgement or when identifiable client information goes into a tool you haven't vetted.

This guide covers where AI helps, what NDIS reports need to contain, your professional and privacy obligations, a safe workflow, and prompts you can adapt.

Where AI helps OTs (and where it doesn't)#

What NDIS reports need to contain#

AI drafts are only as good as the structure you give them. The NDIA publishes what it expects.

Plan reassessment reports. The NDIA's guidance for allied health providers asks you to:

• outline service details: type of service, therapeutic approach, duration and frequency of supports, goals and intended outcomes
• summarise the participant's functional capacity at the start of the plan period and the assessment measures used to quantify it
• describe the therapies trialled and the progress made toward goals, with the measures that show it
• describe barriers, challenges and risks, and how you addressed them
• recommend supports for the next period and justify any more or different NDIS supports, including expected outcomes and impacts on other supports
• share the report with the participant, and upload it to the provider portal only with their consent

The NDIA also suggests asking whether each recommended support is within your scope of practice and expertise, how it links to therapy outcomes and goals, and what the risks are if it isn't provided.

Assistive technology evidence. For mid-cost assistive technology (between $1,500 and $15,000), an advisor's written evidence must say what item is needed, why it's the best value, how it helps with disability support needs and goals, and how much it might cost. For high-cost items (over $15,000) an assessor's assessment, usually from the past 2 years, must also cover how the item affects other supports, what training is needed, and the risks and how to manage them. The NDIA also wants to know what was trialled and why the recommended item is the best option. Its assessment templates aren't mandatory but help you cover every point.

Changes ahead. Under laws passed in August 2026, the NDIA says a new way of planning will begin from April 2027, and from January 2028 access decisions for new applicants will be based on a new standardised assessment of functional capacity. Watch for updated report guidance before then.

Your professional obligations#

Ahpra's guidance, Meeting your professional obligations when using Artificial Intelligence in healthcare, applies to all registered health practitioners. On 22 August 2024 the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia published a news item applying the code of conduct to AI and pointing OTs to it. The guidance doesn't create new rules; it explains how your existing code applies:

• Accountability. You remain responsible for safe, quality care, whatever technology you use. Apply human judgement to every output, test tools for fitness for purpose before using them in practice, and check AI-generated records for accuracy and relevance.
• Understanding. Know the tool's intended use and limitations, how it was trained and tested, how client data is used to retrain it, and where data is located and stored.
• Transparency. Tell clients when you use AI. The detail needed depends on the use; recording a session needs more explanation than background software.
• Informed consent. Involve clients in decisions to use AI tools that need their personal data, obtain informed consent and ideally note it in the record.
• Ethical and legal issues. Protect privacy and confidentiality under privacy and health records law; understand bias, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients and clients from diverse backgrounds; follow TGA and state or territory requirements; know your employer's governance arrangements; and check with your professional indemnity insurer that AI use is covered.

Consent and privacy#

Client information in OT reports is health information, which is sensitive information under privacy law. Three sources set the bar:

• The OAIC says privacy obligations apply to personal information you put into an AI system and to AI output that contains personal information, and recommends against entering personal information, particularly sensitive information, into publicly available AI tools.
• The NDIS Commission's February 2026 position statement on AI in behaviour support plans says the Commission expects that, if a provider uses AI, all information is appropriately de-identified and no personal information of participants is disclosed to AI systems. It is written about behaviour support plans, but it is the clearest statement of the regulator's expectations of NDIS providers using AI.
• Ahpra notes that AI scribes that record consultations generally require informed consent, and that recording without consent may have criminal implications.

The practical default: de-identify before you prompt, use a tool your practice has approved, and keep the identified report in your practice management system.

A safe workflow for AI-assisted OT reports#

1. Choose the tool deliberately. Check where data is stored and processed, whether inputs are used for training, how long data is kept and who can access it. Get your practice's approval.
2. Tell the client and record consent if any personal information will go into the tool.
3. De-identify. Use "the client" or initials, and remove names, NDIS numbers, dates of birth, addresses, school or employer names and family members' names.
4. Start from your own evidence. Paste your observations, standardised assessment scores and trial notes. Never ask the AI to estimate a score or invent an observation.
5. Ask for structure, not opinions. Give it the NDIA headings and tell it to use only your facts and to flag gaps.
6. Verify everything. Check every score, date, quote and recommendation against your notes and the assessment manuals.
7. Own the recommendations. Make sure each one is within your scope of practice and justified by your evidence.
8. Re-identify in your practice system, then read the final report as the participant and the NDIA planner will.
9. Keep your source notes and record AI use in line with your practice policy.

Example AI prompts for occupational therapists#

Each prompt assumes de-identified notes. Replace the bracketed parts.

Turn session notes into a plan reassessment report draft

You are helping an occupational therapist draft an NDIS plan reassessment
report. Use only the facts in my notes. Do not invent scores, observations
or recommendations. Where information is missing, write [MISSING: ...].

Use these headings:
1. Service details (service type, therapeutic approach, duration, frequency)
2. Goals
3. Functional capacity at the start of the plan, and assessment measures used
4. Supports provided and therapies trialled
5. Progress toward goals, with assessment results
6. Barriers, challenges and risks, and how they were addressed
7. Recommended supports for the next period, with justification

Write in plain Australian English, in the third person, for an NDIA planner.

My notes:
[paste de-identified notes and assessment results]

Draft an assistive technology justification

Using only my trial notes below, draft the justification section of an NDIS
assistive technology assessment. Cover: what item is needed, what else was
trialled and why it was less suitable, why this item is the best value, how
it helps the client's disability support needs and plan goals, effects on
other supports, training needed, and risks and how they will be managed.
Flag anything my notes don't support.

Trial notes:
[paste de-identified trial notes]

Check a draft for gaps before you submit

Review this de-identified draft NDIS report. List any of the following that
are missing or weak: baseline functional capacity, named assessment
measures, measurable progress, risks, links between recommendations and
goals, and justification for each recommended support. Do not rewrite the
report. Just list the gaps.

Draft:
[paste draft]

Write a plain-language home program handout

Rewrite these home program instructions for a client and their family.
Use short sentences, everyday words and numbered steps, at about a Year 6
reading level. Keep every safety instruction exactly as written. Add a
short "Stop and contact your OT if..." section using only the warning signs
I list.

Instructions:
[paste instructions and warning signs]

Draft a letter to a GP

Draft a brief letter from an occupational therapist to a GP summarising the
findings and recommendations below. Keep it under 250 words, professional
and specific. Include only the information listed.

Findings and recommendations:
[paste de-identified summary]

AusGPT gives allied health teams a place to run prompts like these with Claude, with processing in AWS Sydney and Melbourne and no training on your data. You can save approved prompts in a shared library so the whole practice works the same way, and upload PDF or Word documents to summarise them. It doesn't change your obligations: de-identify where you can, and check every line. See how allied health practices use it, and our guide to writing NDIS progress notes for support teams.