{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/social-and-human-service-assistants/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Social and Human Service Assistants", "soc_code": "21-1093", "category": "Social Service", "us_employment": 437860, "median_annual_wage": 45930 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 50, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 10, "embodiment": 13, "liability_shield": 4, "trust_premium": 14, "judgment_accountability": 9 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Eligibility screening for SNAP, TANF, Medicaid and housing vouchers is rule-lookup work that software already performs, and case notes and referral packets are drafting tasks — but the home visit where you see the empty fridge, the ride to the methadone clinic, and de-escalating a client who won't come to the door are not digitisable, which is why this lands mid-band rather than in the automatable tier.", "embodiment": "You are in clients' apartments, shelters, group homes and jails on their schedule, driving them to appointments in your own car and occasionally physically assisting someone with mobility or hygiene — uncontrolled settings you don't govern — though it stops short of the 17+ range because there's no equipment operation or clinical hands-on care.", "liability_shield": "No state licence exists for this title; the supervising LCSW or LMSW signs the assessments and treatment plans and carries the board exposure, so the only thing standing between you and substitution is an employer's preference for a bachelor's degree or an HHS-funded certificate.", "trust_premium": "A client who has been failed by systems repeatedly will disclose the eviction notice, the relapse, or the abusive partner to you and not to the agency — that named-person continuity is why the 14 sits above the relationship-helps band, but the relationship is attached to a caseload the agency reassigns, not owned by you like a therapist's panel.", "judgment_accountability": "You decide when a situation warrants a mandated child-abuse report, when to escalate to your supervisor, and how to triage a caseload of forty — real calls, but the treatment plan, the diagnosis and the case closure decision belong to the credentialed supervisor above you, which keeps this from the high-stakes-ownership band." }, "rationale": "Roughly half the job is documentation and navigation work AI already does well: intake forms, benefits eligibility screening, case notes, referral lists, service directories, progress reports. The other half is showing up — home visits, transporting clients to appointments, sitting with someone in crisis, noticing the unsafe apartment or the missed meds — which no current system does. The occupation is unlicensed and supervised by social workers, so it has no legal shield; caseload sizes may grow as paperwork thins rather than headcount collapsing.", "outlook": "Employment holds up because the visits and crisis work still require a body in the room, but the paperwork half of the job compresses hard — expect larger caseloads, more field time, and hiring that favors people with crisis and population-specific credentials.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "If benefits screening, intake, referral matching and case-note drafting are fully automated by state agency AI (already piloted in e.g. CalSAWS-type eligibility systems and Medicaid navigation tools), the residual job becomes home visits, crisis de-escalation, and safety observation — the tier no system does. Task-mix shift, no law needed, but headcount may fall even as per-worker resistance rises.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "If Medicaid HCBS waiver rules and state APS protocols continue to require in-person face-to-face contact at set intervals (post-COVID telehealth flexibilities expiring for home-visit categories), the physical share of the day grows as desk work thins.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "State credentialing of paraprofessional roles with personal accountability — e.g. certified peer support specialist and community health worker certification now Medicaid-billable in 30+ states; if billing rules require a named certified individual to attest to each encounter note (not just a supervising LCSW), a thin shield attaches where none exists.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "trust_premium", "change": "If peer-delivered services keep expanding in behavioral health and reentry programs, where the purchased good is explicitly lived experience and a human relationship (SAMHSA peer support funding, recovery-community organizations), the human is the deliverable rather than a channel.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "If mandated-reporter statutes and child/adult-safety protocols are read to place the reporting duty on the worker who made the observation — with AI outputs treated as inadmissible substitutes for a personal safety judgment — the role owns a consequential ambiguous call rather than relaying one upward.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 } ], "ceiling_note": "Ceiling is low: the role's economics are set by public agency budgets that treat it as the cheap tier under licensed social workers, so productivity gains from paperwork automation are most likely absorbed as bigger caseloads. Even with certification, the sign-off liability stays with the supervising LCSW/LCPC." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 384080, "wage": 33120 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 392300, "wage": 33750 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 404450, "wage": 35060 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 399920, "wage": 35960 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 398380, "wage": 37610 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 399560, "wage": 38520 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 409310, "wage": 41410 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 424220, "wage": 45120 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 437860, "wage": 45930 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": 14, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "mental-health-and-substance-abuse-social-workers", "title": "Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 70, "median_wage": 60280, "overlap": 87, "skills_to_close": [ "Learning Strategies", "Science", "Management of Personnel Resources", "Complex Problem Solving" ] }, { "slug": "marriage-and-family-therapists", "title": "Marriage and Family Therapists", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 74, "median_wage": 66940, "overlap": 87, "skills_to_close": [ "Active Listening", "Complex Problem Solving", "Judgment and Decision Making", "Management of Personnel Resources" ] }, { "slug": "healthcare-social-workers", "title": "Healthcare Social Workers", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 71, "median_wage": 67880, "overlap": 85, "skills_to_close": [ "Operations Analysis", "Management of Personnel Resources", "Science", "Complex Problem Solving" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }