The School of Social Work is bringing artificial intelligence into the classroom to give future social workers a new way to prepare for the realities of clinical practice.
With funding from the Florida Center for Behavioral Health Workforce, the school is launching Simulation for Competency Optimization in Practice & Education in Social Work (SCOPE-AI), an innovative project that will use AI-powered virtual clients to create realistic clinical simulations for social work students and behavioral health professionals.
Through SCOPE-AI, students will step into lifelike clinical scenarios where they can practice interviewing clients, conducting assessments, making decisions and selecting appropriate interventions in a safe, repeatable environment.
Unlike traditional classroom role-playing exercises, the simulations will respond dynamically to students and provide individualized feedback aligned with the Council on Social Work Education's competencies. This approach will allow students to apply what they learn in the classroom while strengthening the critical thinking and decision-making skills needed in the field.
The project comes as behavioral health organizations across the country continue to navigate workforce shortages and a growing need for well-prepared professionals. SCOPE-AI aims to help address that need by exploring how emerging technology can enhance behavioral health education and workforce development.
SCOPE-AI brings together faculty, researchers and students from USF's School of Social Work, Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing and College of Nursing.
Led by principal investigator Manisha Joshi, PhD, MPH, MSW, associate professor, and co-principal investigator Vickie Lynn, PhD, MSW, MPH, associate professor of instruction, the team includes co-investigators Christopher Simmons, PhD, director of the School of Social Work; Lisa Macri, PhD, MSW, assistant professor of instruction; and Chris Groeber, MSW, associate in research, from the School of Social Work; Ankur Mali, PhD, from the Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing; and , from the College of Nursing. Also contributing is Lynsey Valkos, a Master of Social Work student.
The team combines expertise in social work education, simulation-based learning, artificial intelligence, research and health care innovation to develop and evaluate the new training approach. Over the two-year project, they will develop realistic clinical case scenarios, integrate the simulations into MSW field education courses and evaluate their impact on students' knowledge, confidence and competency development.
SCOPE-AI will also extend beyond the classroom through professional development modules that give experienced behavioral health professionals opportunities to use the interactive simulations to further develop their clinical skills.
By combining behavioral health expertise with emerging AI technology, SCOPE-AI has the potential to reshape clinical training while helping strengthen Florida's behavioral health workforce. The project highlights how interdisciplinary collaboration at USF can turn new technology into practical tools for educating and supporting the next generation of behavioral health professionals.