Provide social services and assistance to improve the social and psychological functioning of children and their families and to maximize the family well-being and the academic functioning of children. May assist parents, arrange adoptions, and find foster homes for abandoned or abused children. In schools, they address such problems as teenage pregnancy, misbehavior, and truancy. May also advise teachers.
U.S. Workers
382,960
Median Salary
$58,570
10-Year Growth
+3.4%
Annual Openings
35,100
Typical entry: Bachelor's degree
22 of 23 tasks have some AI capability
Exposure Trend
This score reflects estimated AI technical capability for tasks in this occupation. It does not predict employment changes, and it does not account for company-specific constraints, regulation, or adoption barriers.
Maintain case history records and prepare reports.
AI: Fully automatable - AI systems in 2025 can reliably maintain electronic case histories and generate structured and narrative reports from client data with minimal human effort.
Conduct social research.
AI: Fully automatable - AI systems in 2025 can design studies, run literature reviews, analyze quantitative and qualitative data, and draft reports end-to-end with minimal human intervention.
Refer clients to community resources for services, such as job placement, debt counseling, legal aid, housing, medical treatment, or financial assistance, and provide concrete information, such as where to go and how to apply.
AI: Fully automatable - AI in 2025 can reliably compile up‑to‑date local resource directories, filter options by eligibility, and provide concrete application steps and contact information, enabling fully automated referrals and guidance for clients.
Administer welfare programs.
AI: Fully automatable - Routine administration of welfare programs—including intake processing, case management workflows, benefits calculation, and fraud detection—can be largely automated with existing 2025 AI and software systems.
Determine clients' eligibility for financial assistance.
AI: Fully automatable - Determining eligibility for financial assistance can be automated through rules-based systems and ML that verify documents and compute eligibility, with humans reserved for appeals and complex exceptions.
Recommend temporary foster care and advise foster or adoptive parents.
AI: Partial - AI can recommend temporary placement options and provide guidance to foster or adoptive parents based on data and best practices, but final placement recommendations and oversight must be made by qualified human professionals.
Interview clients individually, in families, or in groups, assessing their situations, capabilities, and problems to determine what services are required to meet their needs.
AI: Partial - AI can conduct intake interviews and standardized assessments and flag risks, but nuanced interviewing, rapport-building, and complex clinical interpretations require human practitioners.
Serve as liaisons between students, homes, schools, family services, child guidance clinics, courts, protective services, doctors, and other contacts to help children who face problems, such as disabilities, abuse, or poverty.
AI: Partial - AI can coordinate communications, share information, and manage referrals among parties, but sensitive liaison work, crisis management, and advocacy across systems require human discretion and trust.
Counsel students whose behavior, school progress, or mental or physical impairment indicate a need for assistance, diagnosing students' problems and arranging for needed services.
AI: Partial - AI can provide screening, conversational support, diagnostic suggestions, and referrals but cannot fully replace human clinicians for nuanced diagnosis, mandated reporting, and complex interpersonal counseling.
Develop and review service plans in consultation with clients and perform follow-ups assessing the quantity and quality of services provided.
AI: Partial - AI can draft service plans, monitor metrics, and generate follow-up reports, but co-development with clients and qualitative assessment of service quality need human collaboration and professional judgment.
Evaluate personal characteristics and home conditions of foster home or adoption applicants.
AI: Partial - AI can analyze documentation, background checks, and interview transcripts to flag concerns, but in-person home assessments and sensitive judgment about family suitability still require human social workers.
Address legal issues, such as child abuse and discipline, assisting with hearings and providing testimony to inform custody arrangements.
AI: Partial - By 2025 AI can prepare legal briefs, summarize case facts, and help staffers rehearse testimony, but it cannot assume legal authority, appear in court, or fulfill mandated human responsibilities for testimony and adjudication.
Counsel parents with child rearing problems, interviewing the child and family to determine whether further action is required.
AI: Partial - AI can conduct preliminary interviews, risk screening, and generate counseling plans and referrals, but it cannot fully replace in-person clinical judgment, mandated reporting, and nuanced family dynamics assessment required for final decisions.
Consult with parents, teachers, and other school personnel to determine causes of problems, such as truancy and misbehavior, and to implement solutions.
AI: Partial - AI tools can analyze reports, suggest likely causes and evidence‑based interventions, and produce communication templates, yet they cannot fully manage stakeholder negotiations, enforce school policies, or replace human-led multidisciplinary implementation.
Arrange for medical, psychiatric, and other tests that may disclose causes of difficulties and indicate remedial measures.
AI: Partial - AI can identify likely medical or psychiatric tests, draft referral letters, and prioritize assessments, but it cannot independently order tests or complete the clinical coordination and consent processes that licensed providers must perform.
Provide, find, or arrange for support services, such as child care, homemaker service, prenatal care, substance abuse treatment, job training, counseling, or parenting classes to prevent more serious problems from developing.
AI: Partial - AI can find appropriate support services, compare options, and initiate referral communications, yet full arrangement (contracts, enrollment, in‑person assessments) typically requires human coordination and verification.
Collect supplementary information needed to assist client, such as employment records, medical records, or school reports.
AI: Partial - AI can generate and manage record requests, parse incoming documents, and automate follow‑ups, but collection of protected records requires authenticated consent, secure transfers, and institutional processes that limit full automation.
Counsel individuals, groups, families, or communities regarding issues including mental health, poverty, unemployment, substance abuse, physical abuse, rehabilitation, social adjustment, child care, or medical care.
AI: Partial - AI can deliver psychoeducation, structured therapeutic exercises, and group facilitation support, but it cannot fully replace licensed clinicians for complex, high‑risk, or legally sensitive mental health and abuse cases.
Supervise other social workers.
AI: Partial - AI can assist with scheduling, performance analytics, and guidance, but supervising social workers involves complex ethical, legal, and interpersonal leadership tasks that require human decision-making.
Lead group counseling sessions that provide support in such areas as grief, stress, or chemical dependency.
AI: Partial - AI can lead structured psychoeducational or CBT-based group sessions and provide facilitation support, yet managing group dynamics, crises, and therapeutic judgment needs human facilitators.
Serve on policy-making committees, assist in community development, and assist client groups by lobbying for solutions to problems.
AI: Partial - AI can draft policy briefs, model community impacts, and generate advocacy materials, but serving on committees and conducting community organizing and lobbying depends on human relationships and political judgment.
Work in child and adolescent residential institutions.
AI: Partial - AI can support monitoring, recordkeeping, risk prediction, and programming in residential institutions, but in-person caregiving, crisis intervention, and supervisory presence cannot be fully automated.
Place children in foster or adoptive homes, institutions, or medical treatment centers.
AI: Not automatable - Placing children in foster or adoptive homes requires legal authority, court oversight, ethical judgment, background checks, and home studies that AI cannot perform or legally authorize.