Will AI replace Mental Health Counselors?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
26/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 43% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 4% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 41% of the work
What the job involves
Counsel and advise individuals and groups to promote optimum mental and emotional health, with an emphasis on prevention. May help individuals deal with a broad range of mental health issues, such as those associated with addictions and substance abuse; family, parenting, and marital problems; stress management; self-esteem; or aging.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Collect information about clients through interviews, observation, or tests.
Within reach(10)
- Maintain confidentiality of records relating to clients' treatment.
- Fill out and maintain client-related paperwork, including federal- and state-mandated forms, client diagnostic records, and progress notes.
- Prepare and maintain all required treatment records and reports.
- Develop and implement treatment plans based on clinical experience and knowledge.
- Modify treatment activities or approaches as needed to comply with changes in clients' status.
and 5 more
Out of reach(16)
- Encourage clients to express their feelings and discuss what is happening in their lives, helping them to develop insight into themselves or their relationships.
- Counsel clients or patients, individually or in group sessions, to assist in overcoming dependencies, adjusting to life, or making changes.
- Perform crisis interventions to help ensure the safety of the patients and others.
- Assess patients for risk of suicide attempts.
- Perform crisis interventions with clients.
and 11 more
Also called
Mental Health Counselor · Mental Health Therapist · Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CMHC) · CMHC · Mental Health Clinician · Behavioral Health Counselor · Counselor · Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC)
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