The Touch of Artificial Intelligence in Social Work: Analysis of Social Investigation Reports in Child Welfare with ChatGPT.

Purpose: This research aimed to examine the responses given by ChatGPT to seven social investigation reports prepared in the field of children regarding deficiencies, risk factors and protective factors, social work intervention plan and institution suggestions in Türkiye.

Materials and methods: Anonymized reports were accessed via web pages on Google and content analysis was conducted using qualitative research methods. The data obtained were analyzed by using the MAXQDA22 program with thematic analysis method and three main themes were created.

Results: In the first theme, social investigation reports are comprehensively evaluated by ChatGPT, deficiencies in both form and content are identified and improvement suggestions are presented. Risk factors and protective factors as the second theme are divided into sub-themes as individual characteristics and experience, family, social environment, health, education, housing, economic and social situation. In the last theme, it is observed that the objectives are established before the social work intervention plan and the institutions providing services are suggested by taking into account different practice areas.

Conclusion: Future studies could investigate the effects of the use of AI in social work practice on social work experts.