Building and Governing AI Systems - Advancing Social Workers' Roles across the Technology Industry, Human Service Organizations, and Policy Institutions

Sep 21, 2026

Artificial intelligence is transforming the technology sector into areas long served by social work, including crisis response, mental health care, benefits administration, vocational rehabilitation, and child welfare. Social workers engage technology teams as tool users, as data subjects, and as first responders, yet often study these systems from outside decision settings. This paper outlines standard roles on technology product teams, analyzes the governance decisions each role controls, maps five technology-decision role groups social workers can hold, and grounds the discussion in social work education competencies.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages46

Reading Time1 h 56 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

AI adoption in public systems serving social work

Procurement and deployments across benefits, child welfare, and crisis response

Philanthropy and workforce growth around AI-enabled tools

Roles, governance decisions, and social work competencies

Building and Governing AI Systems: Advancing Social Workers' Roles across the Technology Industry, Human Service Organizations, and Policy Institutions Nari Yoo, Daphne Watkins, Brian Perron, Jessica Kane, and Matthew Smith School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA Corresponding author: Nari Yoo, School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, [USA. Email: nariyoo@umich.edu. ORCID:](USA. Email: nariyoo@umich.edu. ORCID:) 0000-0002-8467-7048 Preprint. This manuscript is under review and has not been peer reviewed. Please cite the published version once it is available. Abstract Artificial intelligence is moving the technology sector into domains social work has long served, including crisis response, mental health care, benefits administration, vocational rehabilitation, and child welfare. Social workers meet technology teams as users of their tools, as subjects in their datasets, and as first responders to what those systems deploy, yet they study these systems from outside the settings where the decisions are made. This paper introduces the standard roleson a technology product team and the decisions each one controls, reviews the disciplines around AI-era technology together with the social work scholarship that meets each, and identifies five groups of technology decision roles social workers can hold across the technology industry, human service organizations, and policy institutions, spanning product, governance, organizational technology leadership, grantee collaboration, and policy work. Product management is our primary example. We set the nine competencies of the 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards against the tasks that role performs to show where MSW training already teaches the method the job asks for. We then specify the technical understanding these roles require, extend the profession's technology ethics from use to deployment, and close with a research agenda for the profession's technology workforce. Keywords: artificial intelligence; social work profession; product management; social work education; EPAS competencies; human service organizations; AI governance; AI literacy Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from pilot projects to operating infrastructure in the public systems where social workers practice (Code for America, 2026; Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer, 2025; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2025) . Federal agencies reported 3,611 cases ofAI use in 2025, with the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reporting more use cases than any other agency (Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer, 2025) . An independent audit of 11 agencies reported cases of AI use nearly doubling between 2023 and 2024 (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2025) . At the state level, a cross-state assessment found AI already embedded in benefits document processing, fraud detection, and eligibility workflows (Code for America, 2026) . Much of the investment in AI lands in domains where social workers already deliver services. That investment is financial and contractual, moving through procurement contracts between government agencies and AI vendors (Anthropic, 2025; Code for America, 2026), federal grant dollars passed from federal agencies to States (Alms, 2026), and deployments that payers and managed care organizations fund inside their own operations (Axelrod et al., 2025) . Maryland contracted with the AI developer Anthropic to deploy an assistant that will help residents apply for SNAP, Medicaid, cash assistance, and WIC, and will help caseworkers verify documents and validate eligibility in a program that manually processes more than 150,000 documents each month (Anthropic, 2025) . Medicaid managed care organizations already apply AI to risk stratification and utilization management, with minimal public documentation of methods or regulatory oversight (Axelrod et al.,

FAQs

How does the paper describe AI moving into social work domains?

It explains that AI has shifted from pilot projects to operating infrastructure in public systems where social workers practice, spanning crisis response, mental health care, benefits administration, vocational rehabilitation, and child welfare.

What does the paper propose about social workers' roles in technology teams?

It introduces standard roles on technology product teams and links each role to the decisions it controls, then identifies five groups of technology decision roles social workers can hold across industry, human service organizations, and policy institutions.

How does the paper connect social work education to AI-role requirements?

It uses the 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards competencies to show where MSW training already teaches methods the jobs require, then specifies the technical understanding roles need and extends technology ethics from use to deployment.

Sep 21, 2026

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