Community Sentiment
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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Healthcare Social Workers?
Task-level automation exposure for Healthcare Social Workers: 17 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
42%
weighted task index
17 of 17 tasks scored
Median Salary
$67,880 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
High
187,630 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+8.5%
employment change
16,900 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 53 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$36,050 – $94,100
Highest medians
District of Columbia $94,100
California $89,660
Hawaii $85,420
Oregon $84,350
New Jersey $82,690
Lowest medians
Puerto Rico $36,050
Arkansas $55,640
Oklahoma $56,120
Guam $56,990
Montana $57,090
State figures come from the 21-1022 row in the May 2025 state panel. States where the estimate was suppressed or too small to publish are absent.
What the score is made of
Each task is mapped to its work activities, scored for AI automation potential, and weighted by how important those activities are to the job. These are the components.
Automation potential 42%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 0%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 74%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 11%
Share in documenting, recording, and administrative activities.
Rewritten by O*NET 0%
Share of weighted tasks O*NET rewrote in a recent update. Reported, not folded into the score.
Consequence of error 11/100
Low
O*NET's own rating of how serious an uncorrectable mistake would be here — respondents, not us. Deliberately not in the index: the score measures what AI can do with the task content, and multiplying it by stakes would be our judgment dressed as data.
Constituent Task Mix
17 tasks for this occupation, weighted by work-activity importance. Shares below are of total task weight, not task count.
High exposure (≥ 60% of the task is automatable) 4%
1 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 71%
12 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 26%
4 tasks
How would you survive?
Move your week away from the high-exposure tasks and toward the ones that need judgment. The simulator recalculates the index as you shift the mix.
Simulate Upskilling →Emerging & rewritten tasks
Tasks O*NET added or rewrote for this occupation in its recent updates (05/2025 – 08/2026), with who proposed them. Additions are not in the scored task inventory — they are new work O*NET is still measuring, so they appear here and nowhere in the index. A Revision replaces a task that is scored, which is why only those move the "Rewritten by O*NET" share.
- New 08/2021 · Occupational Expert
Conduct psychological assessment of clients.
Constituent Tasks
#263 · Core · 15% automatable
Advocate for clients or patients to resolve crises.
interpersonal — Crisis intervention requires live presence and action
Intervene in crisis situations to assist clients.
#23910 · Core · 40% automatable
Educate clients about end-of-life symptoms and options to assist them in making informed decisions.
interpersonal — Personal counseling needs live emotional presence and accountability
Confer with clients to discuss treatment plans or progress. Counsel clients or patients regarding personal issues.
#258 · Core · 42% automatable
Collaborate with other professionals to evaluate patients' medical or physical condition and to assess client needs.
interpersonal — Client assessment collaboration is professional judgment
Collaborate with other professionals to assess client needs or plan treatments.
#260 · Core · 55% automatable
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.
decision support — Program matching aided by AI; human executes referral
Refer individuals to educational or work programs. Refer clients to community or social service programs.
#265 · Core · 40% automatable
Utilize consultation data and social work experience to plan and coordinate client or patient care and rehabilitation, following through to ensure service efficacy.
decision support — AI drafts plans; clinician assesses and owns treatment
Develop treatment plans for patients or clients.
#267 · Core · 55% automatable
Monitor, evaluate, and record client progress according to measurable goals described in treatment and care plan.
text generation — Maintain client records; human verifies accuracy
Monitor clients to evaluate treatment progress. Maintain client records.
#264 · Core · 43% automatable
Identify environmental impediments to client or patient progress through interviews and review of patient records.
decision support — Home/work hazard assessment needs in-person inspection and judgment
Collect information about clients. Interview clients to gather information about their backgrounds, needs, or progress. Evaluate potential problems in home or work environments of clients.
#261 · Core · 30% automatable
Counsel clients and patients in individual and group sessions to help them overcome dependencies, recover from illness, and adjust to life.
interpersonal — Substance abuse counseling needs trust and accountability
Counsel clients or patients with substance abuse issues.
#15227 · Core · 40% automatable
Plan discharge from care facility to home or other care facility.
decision support — AI drafts plans; clinician assesses and owns treatment
Develop treatment plans for patients or clients.
#262 · Core · 30% automatable
Organize support groups or counsel family members to assist them in understanding, dealing with, and supporting the client or patient.
interpersonal — Family counseling needs live emotional presence
Counsel family members of clients or patients.
#266 · Core · 45% automatable
Modify treatment plans to comply with changes in clients' status.
decision support — Draft modifications possible; clinician owns clinical judgment
Modify treatment plans to accommodate client needs.
#268 · Core · 28% automatable
Supervise and direct other workers providing services to clients or patients.
interpersonal — Client/patient service supervision is relational
Supervise workers providing client or patient services.
#272 · Core · 45% automatable
Plan and conduct programs to combat social problems, prevent substance abuse, or improve community health and counseling services.
decision support — Drafts health program plans; stakeholder and epidemiological judgment human
Plan programs to address community health issues.
#269 · Core · 55% automatable
Develop or advise on social policy and assist in community development.
interpersonal — Sensitive social advice needs human relationship
Advise others on social or educational issues.
#271 · Core · 45% automatable
Conduct social research to advance knowledge in the social work field.
data analysis — Analysis aided; study design and fieldwork human
Conduct research on social issues.
#259 · Supplemental · 55% automatable
Investigate child abuse or neglect cases and take authorized protective action when necessary.
information retrieval — Legal research strong, judgment and accountability human
Investigate legal issues.
#270 · Supplemental · 75% automatable
Oversee Medicaid- and Medicare-related paperwork and recordkeeping in hospitals.
text generation — Complete program documentation from inputs
Complete documentation required by programs or regulations.
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How this was scored
- 1. Tasks. O*NET task statements for this occupation, from a release whose newest record is dated 08/2026.
- 2. Work activities. Each task maps to 1–5 Detailed Work Activities; each activity belongs to one of 41 Generalized Work Activities that O*NET rates for importance (1–5) in this occupation.
- 3. Automation potential. Every work activity carries one score for how far current AI can perform it end-to-end. Tasks inherit the mean of their activities.
- 4. Weighting. Task weight = 0.35 + 0.65 × (importance − 1)/4, scaled by how often the task is performed and by 0.7 for Supplemental tasks. Importance is the task's own O*NET rating where it exists (18,369 of 18,838 tasks); the rest inherit their work activities' importance. The index is the weighted mean.
Check: across the 910 occupations where O*NET also rates how far machine speed sets the pace, this index moves opposite to it (Spearman ρ = -0.49). The more a job is paced by equipment, the less of its task content AI can address — the relationship you would expect if the scoring is working.
Sources · O*NET 31.0 (task records to 08/2026) · BLS OEWS May 2025 · BLS projections 2025-2035 · rubric v2.1 · tasks for O*NET, not a forecast
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