AI in Veterinary Practice: Accelerating Care Through Innovation

With some studies suggesting that approximately 50% of veterinarians experience moderate to high levels of burnout,¹ and ongoing staff shortages reported in a number of countries across Europe, North America and Australasia,² the current challenges of the veterinary profession are well documented. The pandemic ignited a boom in pet ownership in many countries – in the UK, for example, the number of pet-owning households soaring from 41% in 2020 to 60% just two years later³ – putting additional pressure on veterinary practices. Many don’t have the capacity to handle this increased demand and are closing their books to new patients.

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There are more appointments, higher caseloads, and longer hours for veterinary professionals.  More time must be spent with pet owners explaining recommendations for treatment, managing administrative work to ensure accurate, up-to-date clinical records, managing and maintaining medications on site, and juggling financial pressures.

These pressures are further intensified by the challenges pet owners face in understanding the true cost of veterinary care. Without subsidised healthcare models, there can be a gap between pet owner expectations and the reality of what high-quality care entails.

All these factors contribute to a high-pressure environment, where vets strive to enhance efficiency while maintaining the highest standards of care and animal health.

Easing the Pressure for Busy Veterinary Practices

While I think the use of AI in the veterinary industry is still in its infancy, there are solutions which are already easing some of the burdens. AI-enabled scheduling, for example, is a game-changer. I’ve worked in practices where scheduling was almost a full-time job as you juggled different veterinary staff rotas across long clinical and surgical office hours. Now, there are AI tools designed to automate scheduling for veterinary professionals and customers, simplifying the process considerably.

Veterinary diagnostics is another exciting space where AI is delivering results. There are solutions, like Vetscan Imagyst™, which can analyse data in real-time to provide insights into bloodwork trends. For example, most practices could previously only process basic bloodwork in an in-house laboratory, then interpret the results against standard datasets. Now, AI can analyse blood films on site within minutes. The data is uploaded to the cloud and cross-referenced with millions of different samples, then the tool provides a diagnosis based on these insights – meaning pet owners no longer have to wait a week for results.

In veterinary radiography, AI is being used to intelligently analyse images and identify abnormalities, often exponentially faster than humans can. For vets, this can enhance diagnostic confidence, reduce error, and considerably streamline workflows, allowing for faster and more accurate decision-making. For pet owners, the technology leads to quicker diagnoses and treatment plans, reducing the stress of uncertainty and in many cases improving the health outcomes for their pets. Ultimately, AI-driven diagnostics support a higher standard of veterinary care, ensuring pets receive timely and precise medical attention.

AI tools can also support clinical decision-making through predictive analytics. For example, AI can help to flag diagnostic indicators for certain conditions based on a pet’s breed or age. It can indicate potential disease risks for individual patients, which could mean earlier interventions in care. Since prevention is far better than the cure in most instances, these early insights can deliver better patient outcomes.

And the renewed efficiencies don’t stop there. I have seen some advanced practices using AI-powered vet chatbots to triage cases through their website, and prioritise pet care based on need; others are utilising tools for inventory management to reduce the costs of having a fully stocked pharmacy, while overburdened radiography departments are able to reduce their workload by integrating AI for image analysis.

While many AI applications and solutions are still relatively new, their capabilities are evolving rapidly. Two to three years ago, we couldn’t conceive of what AI can do today.

Planning for the Future: Smart Steps Forward

The possibilities of AI are exciting in many domains, but I’ve learned that you have to be really clear on your use cases – and the challenges you’re trying to solve – before you throw new technology into the mix at veterinary practices.

Every business is different, and each practice should identify their unique challenges and pain points, then seek out AI solutions that may be able to resolve them. It’s also vital to remain aware of concerns around privacy and security – especially when dealing with patient records and pet owner information. As always, the tools you use should comply with privacy and regulatory standards.

Staff training on these tools is also key. Often in veterinary practices, everyone’s so busy and consumed with the operational day-to-day needs that they don’t get adequate time to familiarise themselves with new technologies, then they feel the tools aren’t working for them. It’s important to invest the time upfront into ensuring everyone feels confident in how AI tools can help streamline their day-to-day tasks.

Balance: Embrace AI and Empower Teams

AI won’t replace veterinary roles, but those who don’t use it or accept it will likely be left behind in the long run. It’s a tool capable of enhancing decision-making, supporting clinical principles, and providing greater efficiency in an increasingly challenging environment. For those ready to embrace it, AI has the potential to ease the burdens of time constraints, the weight of humdrum tasks, speed up diagnostics, automate repetitive tasks, and give you the space you need to focus on other value-adding tasks that can’t be delivered through AI. Above all, it can reduce the pressures inhibiting your ability to fully immerse yourself in caring for your patients.

While we don’t know what the future looks like, we do know that AI is here to stay and its exponential growth is making it cheaper, faster, and easier to use than ever. There’s no better time for vets to start discovering its potential and maximising their own.