"Alexa, I´m in Need!" - Investigating the Potential and Barriers of Voice Assistance Services for Social Work

Due the involved counselling activities, the profession of social work might provide a promising, yet so far uninvestigated application field for voice assistants. To explore requirements and barriers for voice-based services in the field of social work, we conducted focus group sessions with 41 professionals. During the group discussions and through a questionnaire, we collected requirements for applying voice assistants in this professional setting and corresponding application ideas. Overall, the participants expected a positive impact of voice assistants on their profession. While the protection of the clients´ sensitive data and the risk of their reduced social interactions need to be considered, the participants saw high potential in documentation services and the cooperative guidance of clients by human professionals and voice assistants. Future research should investigate the design of this interplay and study appropriate handover strategies between human experts and virtual assistants for specific social work services.