Welfare and Behaviour
Unlocking the Potential of AI in Veterinary Practice
New webinar highlights four practical ways artificial intelligence can support small animal veterinarians—tackling key challenges while creating real value in clinical care.
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recently hosted a Tech Talk webinar led by Dr Christopher Doherty, featuring insights from Mars associates Dr Geert De Meyer, Science and Data Analytics Lead at Mars Petcare Science & Diagnostics, and Dr James Barr, Chief Medical Officer of Mars Petcare Science & Diagnostics.
The discussion centred on a recent research paper published by the team at Waltham in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA). The study explored AI’s impact across four use cases—diagnostic imaging, early disease detection, administrative workload, and disease surveillance—offering a realistic view of current opportunities and strategies to accelerate progress in small animal veterinary practice.
Diagnostic imaging
AI shows strong potential to enhance workflows in radiology and radiomics (AI-driven analysis of medical images). Radiomics can highlight key data points, drawing the veterinarian’s attention to subtle features and supporting them in otherwise time-consuming tasks.
Early disease detection
Predictive AI models can combine patient signalment such as breed and age, diagnostic test results, and genetic data to assess a pet’s risk of disease — sometimes before clinical signs appear. By identifying patterns and relationships within data, AI can support earlier intervention for conditions such as kidney disease, heart failure, and peritonitis, helping veterinarians monitor at-risk patients more effectively.
Reducing administrative workload
AI has already proven valuable in automating routine tasks such as inventory management, consultation note-taking, patient record updates, and handling basic enquiries. By streamlining administration, veterinarians can spend more time focusing on patient care.
Disease surveillance
AI also offers benefits in large-scale population monitoring. For example, it recently helped track an outbreak of acute vomiting in dogs. While the outbreak resolved without intervention, the case demonstrates AI’s potential to detect emerging patterns quickly, enabling faster and more targeted responses.
Expert perspectives
“We as a profession have the power to shape where this goes. The key is embracing what is happening in the moment and shaping it to create a situation in which it brings the most value to the profession […] it’s figuring out how we deliver care in the most accurate and efficient way and help as many pets as we can.” – Dr James Barr
“AI can almost help with any type of problem, but what AI cannot do is say what are the really good problems to solve for veterinarians. So that’s where we really need to partner.” – Dr Geert De Meyer
Looking ahead
AI is already helping veterinarians address pain points—from spotting patterns in disease and predicting progression to easing administrative workload. But it remains a tool to complement, not replace, clinical expertise. The future of AI in veterinary medicine depends on how the profession chooses to harness it.
