AI exposure: Rehabilitation Counselors
Counsel individuals to maximize the independence and employability of persons coping with personal, social, and vocational difficulties that result from birth defects, illness, disease, accidents, aging, or the stress of daily life. Coordinate activities for residents of care and treatment facilities. Assess client needs and design and implement rehabilitation programs that may include personal and vocational counseling, training, and job placement.
Reading this score
computedRehabilitation Counselors is one of the unusual cases where capability and friction are both high. Current systems can produce a great deal of this work, with average capability across its tasks at 2.1 out of 4. Only 24.4% of the weighted task load comes out as exposed, because 28.7% of it runs into something structural. Jobs in this band tend not to disappear. They change shape, and the person stays.
What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 17 tasks it averages 2.32 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work depends on knowledge the model cannot hold. Much of this job runs on things that were never written down: what this particular organisation does, what happened last week, what the person across the table actually meant. That context is the barrier, and it erodes as systems are given more access.
The most exposed thing this job does is Prepare and maintain records and case files, including documentation, at 66.7%. The least is Collaborate with clients' families to implement rehabilitation plans, at 5.0%. A gap of 61.7% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within community and social service occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 25.4% across the group's 14 roles, with 7 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 17 tasks, 5 are currently banded exposed, 7 assisted and 5 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take a change in who is permitted to sign the work, which is a question for regulators rather than for engineers. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 2.09 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.44 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.91 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.97 | 0-3 |
| Context | 2.32 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.09 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Roles in this band tend to change shape rather than disappear. The output gets drafted faster and the person moves toward review, judgment and accountability. The useful question is not whether to use these tools but who is trusted to sign off on what they produce.
Task by task
17 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare and maintain records and case files, including documentation, such as clients' personal and eligibility information, services provided, narratives of client contacts, or relevant correspondence. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 4.58 | exposed |
| Participate in job development and placement programs, contacting prospective employers, placing clients in jobs, and evaluating the success of placements. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.85 | exposed |
| Collaborate with community agencies to establish facilities and programs for persons with disabilities. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.46 | exposed |
| Develop rehabilitation plans that fit clients' aptitudes, education levels, physical abilities, and career goals. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.77 | assisted |
| Monitor and record clients' progress to ensure that goals and objectives are met. | 29.2% | 33.3% | 37.5% | 4.38 | assisted |
| Manage budgets and direct case service allocations, authorizing expenditures and payments. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 3.83 | exposed |
| Develop diagnostic procedures to determine clients' needs. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 3.29 | exposed |
| Analyze information from interviews, educational and medical records, consultation with other professionals, and diagnostic evaluations to assess clients' abilities, needs, and eligibility for services. | 25.0% | 50.0% | 25.0% | 4.48 | assisted |
| Maintain close contact with clients during job training and placements to resolve problems and evaluate placement adequacy. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 4.00 | assisted |
| Arrange for physical, mental, academic, vocational, and other evaluations to obtain information for assessing clients' needs and developing rehabilitation plans. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.92 | assisted |
| Arrange for on-site job coaching or assistive devices, such as specially equipped wheelchairs, to help clients adapt to work or school environments. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.52 | assisted |
| Confer with physicians, psychologists, occupational therapists, and other professionals to develop and implement client rehabilitation programs. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 3.64 | assisted |
| Develop and maintain relationships with community referral sources, such as schools or community groups. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.00 | untouched |
| Locate barriers to client employment, such as inaccessible work sites, inflexible schedules, or transportation problems, and work with clients to develop strategies for overcoming these barriers. | 7.5% | 17.5% | 75.0% | 4.52 | untouched |
| Confer with clients to discuss their options and goals so that rehabilitation programs and plans for accessing needed services can be developed. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.74 | untouched |
| Supervise rehabilitation counselors and staff. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 3.58 | untouched |
| Collaborate with clients' families to implement rehabilitation plans, such as behavioral, residential, social, or employment goals. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 3.48 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.