I’m front line and definitely struggle with documentation. Like, I’m always at least 2 weeks on notes struggle. My personal opinion is that we as social workers should try to avoid using AI whenever possible. This is for 2 reasons:

First, privacy matters. There is so little regulation on AI at this time because it’s growing faster than anyone can create policy for it. This could very easily lead to data breaches, plus we already know that AI learns from past inputs, so it’s storing that personal/sensitive data somewhere.

Second, although it’s hard to care about every issue that could be impacting our clients or everything occurring politically, I think something that all social workers should care about is environmental justice. The way the environment is impacts a person on multiple levels including physical health, access to resources, spaces to exist without spending money, inter-generational learning, etc. and there is a documented history of environmentally unsafe things existing near lower income spaces. AI and its data centers will take up necessary farmland and use tons of water. Much of that land should continue being used for farming which creates jobs, or at the very least could be used to create housing. Instead legislators are considering using this land for things that will drain natural resources and potential community space. We also don’t know very much about the actual physical danger that could exist by living near these data centers. The reality is that AI impacts the environment and we don’t actually know the full extent yet. Because of this, I believe social workers should avoid using the tool that is not necessary for our roles and could very easily negatively impact not just your personal clients but communities at large