How Vet-AI is Revolutionising Pet Care Through Prevention

Since launching in 2018, Vet-AI has been on a mission to make pet care more affordable and accessible by combining artificial intelligence with veterinary expertise. 

The platform now serves over 1.5 million pet owners globally, offering AI-powered triage and online consultations that help identify health issues early – before they become expensive emergencies. 

In this interview, CEO Etienne Legangneux discusses how prevention is reshaping the pet insurance industry, why learning from human healthcare has been crucial to their success, and how personalised, early intervention is building stronger relationships between pet owners and insurers.

Could you tell us a bit about Vet-AI and how it started? 

Vet-AI started back in 2018 with one goal: to make pet care more affordable and accessible for everyone. From the beginning, we knew it couldn’t be just about vets or just about tech because the real magic happens when you combine the two.  

Today, we help over 1.5 million pet owners globally through a mix of AI-powered triage and online consultations. It means pet owners can get safe, trusted advice in minutes and often before small issues turn into big and potentially expensive ones. 

Our vets still resolve around 60% of the cases we receive, with AI supporting and guiding owners safely through the rest, ensuring every pet gets the right care at the right time.

How are you helping achieve better prevention for pets, and what impact does this have for owners and insurers? 

Prevention is really at the heart of what we do. When pets receive the right advice early on, they stay healthier, and that means fewer things go wrong, which is a win for everyone. Owners avoid stressful emergencies, and insurers avoid large, unexpected claims.  

​​​The industry’s been very reactive for a long time; it usually kicks in once something’s already gone wrong. 

However, if we can help owners identify issues sooner and make more informed decisions about their pets’ health, it takes pressure off the system and makes pet insurance more sustainable.  

We also run personalised health programmes with vet advice tailored to the breed, age and health conditions of each pet. 

It helps educate owners on preventative care and keeps them one step ahead of potential problems, whether that’s managing diet or spotting early warning signs.  

And we’ve even built our commercial model around that. Instead of a flat fee, insurers pay us based on the amount we help reduce in claims. It’s a much fairer, partnership-based approach.

What can the pet industry learn from human healthcare? 

Learning from human healthcare has been a big part of our thinking since day one. In human health, we’ve seen how tools like AI triage and telemedicine can help people receive the right care more quickly. We built Vet-AI on the same principle.  

​​​Our AI triage solution works a bit like the NHS 111 system. Pet owners describe what’s going on, and the AI identifies the most appropriate next step, which could be reassurance or advice, a remote consult or an in-person vet visit for more serious problems. 

It was built by vets, trained with real consultation data and keeps a vet-in-the-loop to validate recommendations when needed, making it incredibly safe and clinically robust. 

Benchmarking shows it’s more accurate than generic AI chat tools like ChatGPT, but more importantly, it’s much safer. ChatGPT will always try to give an answer, even when it’s uncertain, which can be extremely risky in a clinical system. 

Our system doesn’t take that chance. If there’s any doubt or risk in the advice, it sends you to the vet. 

By pointing pets to the right care at the right time, we help reduce unnecessary pressure on vet practices and make sure insurers aren’t covering claims that could have been managed remotely. 

It’s the same kind of shift we’ve seen in human healthcare. Earlier intervention, fewer unnecessary appointments, and more personalised care for every pet.

How does intervention help build trust between owners and insurers? 

When owners can get quick, reliable advice via their insurer, it changes the whole relationship and how they think about their policy. They stop seeing insurance as something they only use when disaster strikes, and it becomes part of everyday care.  

​​​Relevant, trusted advice gives pet owners reassurance and confidence. They know what the best next step is for their pet’s problem, whether that’s a simple at-home fix or a vet visit. That support makes a big difference because it helps owners feel informed and in control.   

Our insurance partners are seeing that too. They’ve reported significant increases in claim savings and retention rates thanks to our platform, which proves we’re adding real value for both pet owners and insurers. When everyone in the ecosystem benefits, that’s when prevention really works. 

How do you work with insurers to make that happen? 

Collaboration is key. Every insurer we work with has slightly different goals. Some want to reduce claims, while others want to focus on customer retention and improving service. So, we start by understanding what matters most to them and then build around that.  

​​​For one partner, that’s meant creating a triage solution that allows them to offer discounted policies to customers who use our service first. For others, it’s been about developing bespoke health programmes for specific groups like young or senior pets, or certain breeds, to help drive engagement and loyalty.  

Right now, we work with partners that represent around 25% of the UK pet insurance market, and that number is growing because the results, whether it’s fewer claims, happier customers or stronger retention, speak for themselves.

What’s next for Vet-AI? 

We’re focused on continuing to make safe, trusted advice available to everyone – that goes for people without insurance, too. Our symptom checker is already free to use, and we’re exploring ways to make it even easier to access, for example, through WhatsApp.  

We’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible with triage technology. We’ve got some exciting new models in development that will give our partners even more ways to support their customers. 

The UK has been a huge focus and success story for us so far, but our technology opens up the possibility of helping pet insurance partners around the world. That’s what’s really exciting. Using what’s we’ve built here to make a global difference in pet health.