🤖 AI Is On The Horizon. 5 Skills To Learn That Will Set You Apart

You’re intrigued, but still cautious. AI is making its way into veterinary medicine, and you’re not quite sure what to learn first or how to prepare. The truth is, most clinics aren’t using AI daily, but the shift is happening quietly in pockets of the profession. A practice down the road is testing voice scribes. A referral hospital is running AI-assisted radiology review in the background. Vet schools are weaving AI into their curriculum.

The gap between “that’s interesting” and “I should probably know how this works” is closing faster than you think. If you remember when practice management software first arrived, this feels similar. Initially awkward, eventually essential. This isn’t about becoming a tech expert or changing how you practice medicine. It’s about building comfort with tools that will feel normal in a year or two, so as your practice begins to sensibly embrace AI, you’re curious instead of resistant, confident instead of overwhelmed. Here’s what to focus on now…

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Prompt Engineering for Clinical Context

This is the skill of asking AI the right question to get a useful answer. If you type “help with dog vomiting” into ChatGPT, you’ll get a generic essay. If you type “draft discharge instructions for a 4-year-old Labrador with acute gastroenteritis, no foreign body, treated with maropitant and subcutaneous fluids, going home stable,” you’ll get something you can actually edit and use in two minutes.

The difference is specificity. AI doesn’t read your mind. It responds to what you give it. The better your prompt, the less time you waste fixing vague or irrelevant output. This matters because within 18 months, you’ll likely be using AI for client handouts, SOAP note templates, or differential lists. Knowing how to frame your request saves you time and frustration.

Start small. Next time you need to write a tricky email to a client, write your notes into ChatGPT or Google Gemini first and ask it to prepare a draft. Include the species, condition, treatment, what the client needs to know and a little about the nature of the client. You will be surprised how good the result is in seconds vs what would have written from scratch in 10 minutes. You’ll quickly learn what level of detail and client information gets you 90% of the way there.

I tried telling the AI to write a referral letter and it came back sounding like a robot wrote it for a textbook. Then I added the actual case details and our relationship with the specialist, and it actually worked. Turns out garbage in, garbage out applies to AI too – Melissa K, Veterinary Technician, Ontario, Canada

Voice-to-Text Scribe Tools

Scribe apps are the gateway AI tool for most practices. They listen while you work and turn your spoken exam findings into written notes. Some record your entire appointment and build the SOAP from context. Others wait for you to dictate specific details. Either way, the skill isn’t mastering technical dictation, it’s getting comfortable talking through your exam the way you already do with pet owners.

This matters because vet schools are already training students on tools like Talkatoo and CoVet. Within a year, you’ll likely interview at practices that assume you’re comfortable with scribe tools. If you’ve never tried one, you’ll feel behind. If you have, even casually, you’ll stand out as someone who adapts quickly.

Start now. Even without a formal scribe tool you can Open ChatGPT or Google Gemini on your phone and use the voice input feature. Talk through a mock appointment naturally, like you’re explaining the case to a colleague or updating an owner. You’ll be surprised how well the AI picks up on details and context. It might even ask for clarity on something you glossed over. The goal isn’t perfect dictation, it’s building comfort speaking your notes instead of typing them.

The first time I tried it I just talked through a case like I was explaining it to the owner. Rambling bits and all. The scribe picked up way more than I expected and actually formatted it better than my usual notes. I stopped overthinking it after that – Sarah L, Associate Vet, Calgary, Canada

AI for Client Communication and Education

This is where AI saves you the most time with the least risk. Drafting discharge instructions, explaining lab results in plain language, creating post-surgical care guides, these are tasks that eat up 20 minutes of your day but don’t require deep clinical judgment. AI handles the first draft in seconds, tailored specifically to the patient and owner. No more bland templates.

The skill here isn’t writing better content, it’s learning to edit AI output quickly and confidently. Can you spot when the tone is too formal or too casual for your client base? Can you catch when AI includes unnecessary detail that will confuse an anxious owner? This matters because clients remember clear communication more than they remember your diagnosis. If AI helps you send better handouts faster, you’ve just improved compliance and freed up time for actual medicine.

The real test is whether you can personalize what AI gives you. If the owner is a worrier, can you soften the language? If they’re detail-oriented, can you add specifics without overloading them? The faster you get at tweaking AI drafts to match the client in front of you, the more useful the tool becomes. Try it once with a complicated case, something where the owner needs reassurance and clarity, not just instructions. See how close AI gets you, then notice what you instinctively change. That’s your editing skill developing.

I used to spend forever rewording discharge instructions so they didn’t sound like a textbook. Now I dump my notes into AI, tell it to write at a sixth grade reading level, and I’m done editing in two minutes. The clients actually read them now because they’re not overwhelmed by medical jargon – Marcus T, Associate Vet, Portland, OR

Workflow and Scheduling Optimization

AI isn’t just helping with clinical tasks, it’s quietly reshaping how practices manage appointments, staffing, and case flow. Tools are emerging that analyze booking patterns and suggest better ways to structure your day. They flag when surgical blocks are consistently running over, when certain appointment types always take longer than scheduled, or when front desk bottlenecks are slowing down patient flow.

You won’t be the one implementing these systems, but you’ll be affected by them. A scheduling algorithm might move your surgery time or suggest clustering wellness exams differently. An AI tool might recommend adjusting appointment lengths based on actual case data, not assumptions. The skill here is understanding why these changes are happening and being flexible enough to work with them instead of resisting because “we’ve always done it this way.”

Pay attention when your practice starts testing workflow tools. Ask questions about what the AI is measuring and why it’s suggesting changes. If a new scheduling system feels wrong, be curious about the data behind it before you push back. Sometimes AI spots inefficiencies we’ve gotten so used to that we don’t see them anymore. Sometimes it misses context that only the people working the floor understand. Your ability to evaluate these tools critically, not just accept or reject them outright, makes you a valuable team member during transitions.

Our practice owner tested a scheduling tool that wanted to compress our appointments by five minutes each. Everyone panicked. Then we looked at the actual data and realized we were building in buffer time that we rarely needed. We tested it for a month and it worked. I’m glad I didn’t just assume the AI was wrong because it felt uncomfortable at first – Jennifer W, Senior Veterinarian, Auckland, New Zealand

Hallucination Spotting

AI hallucinates. It can confidently recommend wrong drug doses, cite studies that don’t exist, and invent treatment protocols that sound legitimate but aren’t. This isn’t a bug, it’s how the technology works. AI generates text based on patterns, not facts. When it doesn’t know something, it fills the gap with plausible-sounding fiction. The skill you need is recognizing when AI sounds authoritative but is actually making things up.

This matters because you’ll be using AI for clinical support, differential lists, dosage checks, client education. If you can’t tell when it’s wrong, you’ll either waste time verifying everything or worse, trust something dangerous. The professionals who use AI well treat it like a confident intern. Helpful, fast, often right, but always needs supervision.

Try this with ChatGPT or Google Gemini. Ask it a clinical question you already know the answer to. Check if it gets the dose right, the contraindications, the species-specific considerations. Then ask it something obscure. Does it admit uncertainty or does it invent an answer? You’ll quickly notice patterns. AI is great with common conditions and standard protocols. It struggles with rare cases, newer treatments, and nuanced clinical judgment. The more you test it in low-stakes situations, the faster you’ll recognize its limits when it actually matters.

I asked it to draft a client email and it referenced a follow-up appointment I never mentioned. Sounded completely natural, like it belonged there. Caught it in about ten seconds, deleted that line, and sent it. You get faster at spotting the weird stuff the more you use it – Kim L, Veterinary Nurse, Sydney, Australia

Closing Thoughts…

Building comfort with AI isn’t about becoming a technology expert or abandoning the clinical skills that make you good at your job. It’s about staying confident as tools that feel unfamiliar right now become normal parts of your workday. The vets and techs who experiment with AI now, even in small ways, won’t be scrambling to catch up when practices start expecting it. They’ll already know what works, what doesn’t, and how to use it without losing sight of the medicine.

You don’t need formal training or expensive software to start. Open ChatGPT or Google Gemini this week. Draft one email, narrate one case, test one clinical question you already know the answer to. See what happens. The goal isn’t perfection, it’s familiarity. Because when AI tools show up at your practice, and they will, you’ll be the one helping your team adapt instead of feeling left behind. That experience, more than any formal credential, is what will set you apart.

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