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AI in veterinary practice, and the automation around it

AI in veterinary practice today often drafts or reads: Provet's AI Scribe, CoVet and Heidi turn a recorded consultation into draft notes, and SignalPET and Vetology screen radiographs. We build the work around your practice management system (PMS): notes a vet verifies, claim packs, estimates and the client messages the CMA's 2026 Order requires.

The RCVS agreed its advice on AI for vets and vet nurses in April 2026: clinical decision making must not be wholly delegated to AI, and AI-generated records should be verified manually. In what we build, a vet or nurse checks every output about a patient, and the record shows who did.

Start a projectWhat we would build

Where the time goes

  • Consult notes

    Each consultation needs clear, accurate and adequately detailed records, entered at the time or as soon as reasonably practicable: examination, treatments, test results, plans, who gave the care and the advice given. A correction should leave the original readable, dated and showing who made it.

  • Estimates and consent

    Informed consent needs a range of reasonable options with fee estimates, recorded on the consent form or an attached estimate. Under the CMA Order, higher-cost treatment plans also need a written estimate by the end of the next working day.

  • Insurance claims

    Claims need the history, invoices and every material fact, with the amounts actually charged on direct claims. Petios, run by Allianz, sends claims from the PMS and says it has connected with all corporate groups and over 75% of independent practices.

  • Confirmations and reminders

    Booking tools such as Vetstoria and apps such as PetsApp handle bookings and reminders. Under the CMA Order, the first digital confirmation of a consultation must give its price and a price list link, and every confirmation or reminder must carry a standard line about written prescriptions.

The systems you already run

  • ezyVet

    Cloud PMS backed by IDEXX. Its REST API uses OAuth 2.0, covers appointments, consults, diagnostic results, invoices and estimates, has webhooks, and lets a practice connect its own tools. IDEXX VetConnect PLUS returns lab results to the record.

  • Provet

    Its built-in AI Scribe drafts a clinical note from a recorded consultation, saved only when the vet adds it. Its REST API uses OAuth 2.0, with webhooks that say what changed. Customers can request API and sandbox access.

  • Merlin

    MWI Animal Health's cloud PMS covers scheduling, reminders, two-way messaging, estimates and insurance claims, and VetConnect PLUS lab results. MWI documents an API for it, with access granted per practice.

  • Teleos

    An independently owned PMS for independent practices. A supporter of the SPVS's Vet-XML consortium, it sends electronic insurance claims, links to labs and registers microchips, and it connects to VetEnvoy, Vetstoria and PetsApp. It runs in the cloud or locally.

  • Petios and VetEnvoy

    Owned by Allianz since 2017, it sends claims with client details, history and invoices from the PMS to insurers, and handles lab requests and microchip registrations. Partners are moving from VetEnvoy to its new platform.

What we would build

  • Notes a vet signs off

    Brings the draft from your PMS's own scribe, or one you choose, into the clinical record only after the vet has read and edited it. Records who verified each note and when, keeps the original beside any correction, and asks the vet to keep only relevant AI differentials.

  • CMA booking messages

    Adds the consultation price and your price list link to the first confirmation of each booking, and the Order's line "Written prescriptions are available. See the RCVS website for further information." to every confirmation and reminder, logging what went to whom.

  • Insurance claim packs

    Gathers the history, invoices and discounts for a claim, drafts a summary of the condition for the vet to check against the full record, and sends the client a copy first. Nothing reaches an insurer until the vet approves it.

  • Estimates and complaint logs

    Drafts a written estimate from the vet's plan and your price list, tracks the next-working-day deadline and keeps each one for at least 12 months. Logs each complaint unresolved after ten working days, with the Order's fields and its five working day and eight week deadlines.

Where AI helps

AI alone should not diagnose, choose a treatment or prescribe. Diagnosis, advice based on it and treatment are veterinary surgery under section 27 of the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, which section 19 restricts to registered vets, and the RCVS says clinical decision making must not be wholly delegated to AI.

  • Drafting consult notes from a recording, with the vet editing each one before it joins the clinical record.
  • Summarising a patient's history for a referral or a claim, with the vet checking it against the record before it goes.
  • Sorting client messages and flagging words that suggest an emergency, with reception or a nurse deciding what happens next.

How we would start

We would start with one consulting room and a week of its work, from booking to invoice: how notes reach the clinical record, what goes into a claim, and which client messages the CMA Order changes. The first working version would connect to your PMS, add the consultation price and price list link to booking confirmations, and draft claim packs for a vet to approve.

That first stage, the design and a written scope, typically takes one to three weeks. Like every stage, its price is fixed and agreed before it starts, and you can stop after it. How a project runs

Rules we build around

The software keeps the records these ask for. The duties stay with you.

  • Veterinary Services Market Investigation Order 2026

    Made by the CMA on 22 September 2026. For businesses with 14 or fewer practices, from the working day after 22 March 2027: price lists, the consultation price in booking confirmations, complaint logs. From the working day after 22 September 2027: written estimates, itemised bills, and written prescription wording in confirmations, reminders and receipts.

  • RCVS supporting guidance, chapter 13: Clinical and client records

    Updated 24 April 2026. Records should be objective, factual, entered at the time or as soon as reasonably practicable, and secure. Amendments should not remove or obscure the original, and should be dated and show who made them. Get the client's consent before sharing a history containing personal data with another practice, unless anonymised.

  • RCVS supporting guidance, chapter 9: Animal insurance

    Only the policyholder can claim; the vet may invoice the insurer when authorised. Direct claims show the amounts actually charged, with extra charges separate and discounts accounted for. When the practice sends a claim, sending the client a copy first is good practice. Never sign blank claim forms.

  • UK GDPR Article 28 and the RCVS's AI advice

    A scribe or AI vendor handling client data for the practice must give sufficient guarantees and work under a binding contract. The RCVS asks how a tool stores data, whether it trains on client data without consent, and whether the developer can access it.

Questions

Our PMS already has an AI scribe. Do we need anything else?

Often not. If Provet's AI Scribe, CoVet or Heidi covers your consults, buying it is the better answer. We build what sits between your systems: the check that each note is verified, claim packs, estimates, complaint logs and the CMA's booking messages.

Should we tell clients a consultation is recorded?

The RCVS says being open and honest with clients about how AI processes their data is the simplest and safest way to prevent compliance issues, and your privacy notice should say how client data is used and shared. We would tell the client before recording starts and note a refusal.

Will it work with our practice management system?

ezyVet and Provet publish REST APIs with OAuth 2.0 and webhooks, and MWI documents an API for Merlin. We found no public API for Teleos, so we would use the integrations it already has, such as Vetstoria bookings, or ask Teleos first.

Can veterinary AI triage messages from owners?

It can sort messages and flag emergency words so staff see urgent cases first. It should not tell an owner what is wrong or whether their pet can wait: that is diagnosis, or advice based on it, which the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 treats as veterinary surgery.

Related

Other industries: Dental practices, Retailers.

Sources

Every rule, date and figure on this page comes from the sources below, checked on 31 October 2026. Rules change: check anything that matters with the source or your adviser.

The 30 sources

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