Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors

Low Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (5)

Lower estimated automation risk

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Why it fits

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Exercise Physiologists
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Why it fits

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Athletic Trainers
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Why it fits

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Fitness and Wellness Coordinators
20% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better
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Why it fits

Directly reuses fitness programming, client goals, schedules, safety, participation tracking, and facility coordination.

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
7.1/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

27% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Working directly with the public

Very important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
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Thinking creatively

Very important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Assisting and caring for others

Quite important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
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Coaching and developing others

Quite important
Why this matters
Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.
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Decision-making and problem solving

Quite important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Show 3 more strengths

Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Psychology knowledge

Quite important
Why this matters
Understanding human behavior, motivation, and individual differences to assess needs, respond appropriately, and support behavior change or mental health.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 154 votes

36% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 27% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors was $46,180 ($22 per hour).

The median annual wage for Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors was 6.7% lower than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors' job openings is expected to rise 11.9% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 303,620 people employed as 'Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors' within the United States.

This represents around 0.20% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 507 people are employed as 'Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors'.

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What people are saying (8)

Leave a comment
Anonymous (Low)
28 Feb 2024 10:30
They've tried. When I did group fitness classes at the gym, the virtual ones would have 1-3, maybe 5 people tops, whereas classes led by a person would have maybe 10-15 on a bad day, and the max of 40 regularly. As for personal training I'd imagine people struggling would need the extra motivation from a human. Diet/exercise advice is readily available online, but people still struggle on their own.
g (No chance)
10 Jan 2024 08:07
Automation sector growing day by day making human body idle that affect physically and mentally of a person. so opportunities in naturopathy and health sector definitly growing faster.
saurabh sharma (Highly likely)
17 Nov 2023 16:00
Look at a fitness devices like the Peloton Row. It gives feedback about our rowing form in real time. It’s not hard to imagine that before long this feedback will become more personalized as it will be channeled in the shape of a “form to script” feedback narrated by a fitness instructor who is an AI Avatar.
I believe that customers will value a feature like this.
This will also be good for Peloton as they’d need to invest less in hiring human fitness instructors.
Aishi (No chance)
10 Aug 2023 07:09
Robots are metal bodies they do not have blood, veins, arteries, hormones, bones, muscles,etc. And teaching yoga or any exercise is not a technical thing. It's physical and mental things. A robot can't explain properly how to do it.So I think there is no chance to take the jobs of yoga of any exercise trainers.
The instructor
19 Apr 2023 11:31
When robots developed patience , compassion , patience , motivation, patience , creativity and patience , maybe it could be replace , but honestly the social aspect is so strong to human than the air , any online training will be good enough. also robots never will be patience with miserable elderly people
Jessica (Uncertain)
26 Jan 2023 08:42
Some people will like a more personal touch from a living person and not a machine.
That's why it's called personal training
Julie Holt (Highly likely)
24 Feb 2020 21:11
I don’t think a robot is going to take my job but- I do think that yoga studios are going to close due to the massive online / app based yoga / fitness tools. Before, if you were curious, you went to a studio and tried it out. Now, if you’re curious about yoga, you find any one of the millions on online options and practice at home (likely doing it poorly or hurting yourself). Studios can’t pay their bills and will close. Yoga teachers need studios. Without a studio, my job is pretty tricky. Same goes for spin instructors being replaced by Peloton, personal trainers being replaced by Mirror, etc.
Yeah nah (No chance)
18 Feb 2020 00:20
Cause you don't only need to sell fitness, you also need to sell motivation and motivation coming from another human is probably more motivational then it coming from a robot.
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Job description

Instruct or coach groups or individuals in exercise activities for the primary purpose of personal fitness. Demonstrate techniques and form, observe participants, and explain to them corrective measures necessary to improve their skills. Develop and implement individualized approaches to exercise.

O*NET-SOC code: 39-9031.00