A Systematic Review of AI and Social Work in China (2023–2025)

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_59How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Artificial intelligence; Social work; China; Digital social work; Systematic literature review

Abstract

Amid rapid digitalization, artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping social work in China, yet evidence is fragmented. This study conducts a Systematic Literature Review (CNKI, Jan 2023–Apr 2025) and applies Braun & Clarke’s thematic analysis to synthesize 20 peer-reviewed articles (from 57 records). Three interlinked themes emerge. (1) Professional reconstruction: a shift from tool-centric digitization to human–AI co-production, driven by technological, knowledge, and collaborative “productivities,” with ethics increasingly front-loaded. (2) Vulnerable groups: co-designed interventions show promise in hospice care, intelligent eldercare, post-poverty contexts, and women’s employment, while risks persist around privacy, bias, and opaque platform governance; social workers’ roles expand to system integrators and ethical gatekeepers. (3) Educational transformation: macro–meso–micro changes realign policy, curricula, and field education toward interdisciplinarity, technical practicums, and situated learning. I propose a technology–ethics–governance lens and recommend human–AI co-decision protocols, anti-bias workflows, Algorithmic Impact Assessments, and codified standards for explainability, differential impact, and response time, alongside MSW reforms. Limitations include database/language scope, time window, and single-coder bias. A mixed-methods, longitudinal, cross-context agenda is outlined for sustainable, rights-respecting AI in social work.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yiyuan Lin
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/26
TI  - A Systematic Review of AI and Social Work in China (2023–2025)
BT  - Proceeding of 2025 8th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 552
EP  - 560
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_59
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_59
ID  - Lin2026
ER  -