The veterinary profession faces a fundamental shift in the client-veterinarian relationship driven by artificial intelligence adoption. Recent survey data indicates that 35% of adults are already using AI tools to manage aspects of their own health and wellness, with the primary application being to gain insight into specific medical conditions. This rapid adoption of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Claude is reshaping how pet owners approach veterinary care.
Evidence of Accelerated AI Adoption Among Pet Owners
Consumer adoption of generative AI tools has proceeded at an unprecedented pace. Research published in March 2025 estimated that 52% of adults now use LLMs, representing growth from virtually zero two years prior. Analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis demonstrates that ChatGPT adoption has outpaced both internet and personal computer adoption rates during comparable periods. The vast majority of individual users (80%) access free versions of these tools, removing economic barriers to adoption.
Among younger pet owners, usage rates are substantially higher. Survey data shows that 70% of Generation Z adults (those under 30 in 2025) use AI tools to search for information. This demographic currently represents 20% of all pet owners, a proportion that continues to grow. Given that younger pet owners typically have lower household incomes, their motivation to use AI for comparison shopping and medical information gathering is particularly strong.
The Narrowing of Medical Information Asymmetry
Historically, veterinary medicine has been characterized by significant information asymmetry between practitioners and clients. Pet owners lacked the ability to objectively assess a veterinarian’s medical competence and typically relied on the veterinarian’s ability to relate to them and their pet. Survey data from the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2022 found that 60% of pet owners were extremely satisfied and 30% somewhat satisfied with their veterinary visits, reflecting this traditional dynamic.
However, AI-enabled tools are fundamentally altering this relationship. Pet owners can now obtain differential diagnoses and treatment plan options by providing their pet’s signalment (species, breed, age, weight), vital signs, behavioral observations, current medications, and any available diagnostic results to an LLM. While these general LLMs have not been validated for companion animal species-specific analysis and can produce errors (termed “hallucinations”), their accuracy for medical interpretations has improved markedly. Data shows that inaccuracies in ChatGPT decreased from 15.8% with GPT-4 to 1.5% with GPT-5, approaching expert veterinarian-level performance.
Current State of Pet Owner Engagement
Research indicates that pet owners are actively using these tools in veterinary contexts. Veterinary practices are now routinely experiencing clients who arrive armed with questions based on LLM research. Pet owners are requesting their medical records and uploading them to AI platforms for interpretation. The capability of AI tools to perform optical character recognition on PDF images of bloodwork panels allows pet owners to extract and analyze diagnostic data without veterinary assistance.
More significantly, pet owners can provide their AI assistants with contextual information about their pets that may exceed what they communicate to veterinarians during appointments. This includes detailed behavioral observations, video documentation, and historical patterns that inform the AI’s assessment. As one veterinary professional noted, pet owners may be providing their LLM tools with “far more environmental context than the pet owner could communicate to the veterinarian before or during an exam.”
Implications for Clinical Practice
This transformation requires veterinarians to fundamentally reconsider their role. Rather than serving as the sole medical authority, veterinarians must now function as collaborators who integrate their professional judgment with increasingly informed client perspectives. The veterinarian retains essential capabilities that AI cannot replace: the ability to perform physical examinations, obtain diagnostic samples, interpret complex clinical findings, and apply professional judgment to individualized circumstances.
However, veterinarians must now engage with clients who possess substantial medical knowledge derived from AI sources. This necessitates that practitioners themselves adopt AI tools to maintain their position as expert advisors. As one analysis in the document notes, veterinarians are being “dragged into the AI revolution by their clients, whether they choose to adopt it proactively or not.”
Structural Factors Driving This Shift
Several characteristics of veterinary medicine make it particularly vulnerable to AI-driven disruption. Unlike human medicine, veterinary care operates in a cash-based market where pet owners bear the full cost of services and function as both decision-makers and payers. This direct financial relationship creates strong incentives for pet owners to seek information and compare options.
Additionally, veterinary medicine faces minimal regulatory barriers to AI adoption. Diagnostic products and services (with limited exceptions) do not require FDA or USDA approval. Veterinarians are not subject to HIPAA regulations, instead following general state-level privacy requirements. This regulatory environment permits rapid development and deployment of AI tools without the approval processes required in human healthcare.
The profession also confronts rising cost pressures. According to Bureau of Economic Analysis data, veterinary care costs have increased nearly 45% cumulatively since late 2019, compared to general price inflation of 26%. Even in 2025, veterinary service prices continue to increase approximately 4% faster than overall consumer prices. These cost pressures motivate pet owners to seek information that helps them make informed financial decisions.
Evidence of Changing Client Expectations
Survey data suggests that traditional client loyalty may be eroding. A late 2024 study found that 31% of clients are considering changing their veterinary practice within the next year, with this proportion rising to 40% among those aged 18 to 34 years. While this research was sponsored by a software vendor and requires cautious interpretation, it indicates potential shifts in client behavior patterns.
The document notes that “AI, combined with the rise of GenZ pet owners, may be fundamentally changing this dynamic, accelerating veterinary services exposure to less client loyalty, more switching, and thus greater competition.”
Professional Response Requirements
For veterinarians to successfully navigate this transition, several adaptations are necessary. First, practitioners must integrate AI tools into their own workflows to maintain their expertise advantage. This includes using AI-assisted diagnostic tools, case assessment software, and communication platforms that help them stay current with medical literature.
Second, veterinarians must develop new communication approaches that acknowledge and incorporate client-generated information. Rather than viewing informed clients as threats to professional authority, practitioners should recognize that knowledgeable pet owners can become more effective partners in delivering optimal care.
Third, the profession must address price transparency proactively. As AI enables easier price comparison across practices, veterinarians who provide clear pricing information and competitive rates while demonstrating superior care quality will be better positioned to attract and retain clients.
Conclusions
The evidence indicates that AI adoption among pet owners is not a future possibility but a current reality that is reshaping veterinary practice. Pet owners armed with AI tools possess unprecedented access to medical information, diagnostic capabilities, and price comparison resources. This democratization of medical knowledge requires the veterinary profession to transition from a paternalistic model toward genuine collaborative partnerships with clients.
Practices that embrace this transformation by adopting AI tools themselves, engaging in open dialogue with informed clients, and demonstrating clear value propositions will be best positioned to thrive. Those that resist or ignore these changes risk losing clients to more adaptive competitors. The veterinarian’s role remains essential, but it must evolve from exclusive medical authority to expert collaborator in an increasingly informed healthcare partnership.
The ultimate beneficiaries of this transformation will be companion animals, who stand to receive more informed, cost-effective, and accessible veterinary care as the profession adapts to this new reality.