Will AI replace Healthcare Social Workers?
AI reaches a large part of this job’s work.
42/100
High exposure
More exposed to AI than 69% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 7% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 65% of the work
What the job involves
Provide individuals, families, and groups with the psychosocial support needed to cope with chronic, acute, or terminal illnesses. Services include advising family caregivers. Provide patients with information and counseling, and make referrals for other services. May also provide case and care management or interventions designed to promote health, prevent disease, and address barriers to access to healthcare.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Monitor, evaluate, and record client progress according to measurable goals described in treatment and care plan.
Within reach(10)
- Educate clients about end-of-life symptoms and options to assist them in making informed decisions.
- Collaborate with other professionals to evaluate patients' medical or physical condition and to assess client needs.
- Refer patient, client, or family to community resources to assist in recovery from mental or physical illness and to provide access to services such as financial assistance, legal aid, housing, job placement or education.
- Utilize consultation data and social work experience to plan and coordinate client or patient care and rehabilitation, following through to ensure service efficacy.
- Identify environmental impediments to client or patient progress through interviews and review of patient records.
and 5 more
Out of reach(6)
- Advocate for clients or patients to resolve crises.
- Organize support groups or counsel family members to assist them in understanding, dealing with, and supporting the client or patient.
- Plan discharge from care facility to home or other care facility.
- Counsel clients and patients in individual and group sessions to help them overcome dependencies, recover from illness, and adjust to life.
- Supervise and direct other workers providing services to clients or patients.
and 1 more
Also called
Hospice Social Worker · Medical Social Worker · Nephrology Social Worker · Renal Social Worker · Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) · LCSW · Clinical Social Worker · Oncology Social Worker
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics