Professionals · code 2635
Social work and counselling professionals
Social work and counselling professionals provide advice and guidance to individuals, families, groups, communities and organizations in response to social and personal difficulties. They assist clients to develop skills and access resources and support services needed to respond to issues arising from unemployment, poverty, disability, addiction, criminal and delinquent behaviour, marital and other problems. Tasks include - (a) interviewing clients individually, in families or in groups, to assess their situation and problems and determine the types of services required; (b) analysing the client’s situation and presenting alternative approaches to resolving problems; (c) compiling case records or reports for courts and other legal proceedings; (d) providing counselling, therapy and mediation services, and facilitating group sessions to assist clients to develop skills and insights needed to deal with and resolve their social and personal problems; (e) planning and implementing programmes of assistance for clients, including crisis intervention and referral to agencies that provide financial assistance, legal aid, housing, medical treatment and other services; (f) investigating cases of abuse or neglect and taking action to protect children and other persons at risk; (g) working with offenders during and after sentence to help them to integrate into the community and to change attitudes and behaviour in order to reduce further offending; (h) providing advice to prison governors and to probation and parole review boards that helps determine whether, and under what conditions, an offender should be incarcerated, released from prison or undergo alternative correctional measures; (i) acting as advocates for client groups in the community and lobbying for solutions to problems affecting them; (j) developing prevention and intervention programmes to meet community needs; (k) maintaining contact with other social service agencies, educational institutions and health care providers involved with clients to provide information and obtain feedback on clients’ overall situation and progress. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Addictions counsellor - Bereavement counsellor - Child and youth counsellor - District social welfare officer - Family counsellor - Marriage counsellor - Parole officer - Probation officer - Sexual assault counsellor - Social worker - Women’s welfare organizer Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Psychologists - 2634 - Welfare support worker - 3412
None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 227 of 427 for holding up against AI.
Also known as
- social worker
- social pedagogue
- social counsellor
Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.
against AI Not Exposed
AI could take on 28.3 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 28.3 = 71.7
That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.
out of 100
From O*NET, averaged across 8 US jobs , so treat it as rough
and cramped
finger skill 13.8 · hand skill 5.8 · cramped spaces 9.2 · averaged
Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on
Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.
estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement
What this number leaves out This job rates 17.8 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.
The tasks behind the score
The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.
The task AI could do most of scores 45.5, while the average is 28.3. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.
- 45.5
Compiling case records or reports for courts and other legal proceedings
Low - 43.5
Analysing the client's situation and presenting alternative approaches to resolving problems
Low - 33.5
Planning and implementing programmes of assistance for clients including crisis intervention and referral to agencies that provide financial assistance, legal aid, housing, medical treatment and other services
Low - 30.8
Acting as advocates for client groups in the community and lobbying for solutions to problems affecting them
Low - 30
Developing prevention and intervention programmes to meet community needs
Low - 28
Interviewing clients individually, in families, or in groups, to assess their situation and problems and determine the types of services required
Low - 26
Maintaining contact with other social service agencies, educational institutions and health care providers involved with clients to provide information and obtain feedback on clients' overall situation and progress.
Low - 24
Working with offenders during and after sentence, to help them to integrate into the community and to change attitudes and behaviour in order to reduce further offending
Very Low - 19.8
Providing counselling, therapy and mediation services and facilitating group sessions to assist clients to develop skills and insights needed to deal with and resolve their social and personal problems
Very Low - 17
Providing advice to prison governors and to probation and parole review boards that helps determine whether, and under what conditions, an offender should be incarcerated, released from prison or undergo alternative correctional measures
Very Low - 13.5
Investigating cases of abuse or neglect and taking action to protect children and other at risk persons
Very Low
11 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's
from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting
Helped, or replaced?
The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.
4 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.
- AI helps you
- 68.3
- AI does it for you
- 37.8
Helping wins by 30.5 points.
estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 2721, 2725, 2726, 4117
Compared with similar jobs
There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” group, averaging 61.2. This one is above that.
- Creative and performing artists not e… 87.1
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- Religious professionals 83.4
- Dancers and choreographers 80.6
- Health professionals not elsewhere cl… 80.5
- Early childhood educators 79.2
- Visual artists 79
- Paramedical practitioners 76.7
- Optometrists and ophthalmic opticians 76.3
- Audiologists and speech therapists 76.2
- Nursing professionals 74.8
- Primary school teachers 73.9
- Specialist medical practitioners 72.9
- Environmental and occupational health… 72
- Musicians, singers and composers 72
- Physiotherapists 71.6
- Special needs teachers 71.6
- Farming, forestry and fisheries advis… 71.5
- Generalist medical practitioners 71.3
- Mining engineers, metallurgists and r… 70.7
- Secondary education teachers 70.2
- Midwifery professionals 70.1
- Civil engineers 69.8
- Engineering professionals not elsewhe… 69.5
- Judges 68.7
- Electrical engineers 68.6
- Actors 68.6