🛠️ The Skills 2027 Will Demand: What To Start Learning Now

Every profession has moments where a handful of people spot what’s coming next and move early. Not because they were told to, but because something clicked and they got genuinely excited about it. Veterinary medicine is in one of those moments right now. The abilities that will set you apart in 2027 aren’t about what you do in surgery or how you read a blood panel. They’re being shaped by what today’s pet owners expect, what tomorrow’s clients will demand, and how the relationship between practices and the people and pets they serve is changing fast.

This is your shortlist. Five specific abilities, each one driven by real shifts in client behaviour and market expectations, that you can start building through on-the-job practice or simply by trying something new next week, and once you have a base, dive in deeper through your regular CE and CPD hours. Getting ahead of these now sets you up for stronger career options and puts you in a position to bring your colleagues along when they’re ready. Here’s where to start…

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Client Communication

The traditional model of “vet recommends, client complies” is giving way to something more collaborative. Clients in 2027 will arrive with their own research, data from pet wearables, and firm opinions shaped by online communities. That’s not a problem to manage. It’s a conversation to get good at. And the professionals who handle these conversations well aren’t winging it. They’ve practised the language, prepared for the predictable friction points, and built confidence through repetition rather than reaction.

3 key points:

• Financial conversations remain one of the biggest sources of client conflict and staff stress. Knowing how to discuss costs openly and without defensiveness is a distinct and learnable skill. It changes the dynamic from “here’s what it costs” to “here’s what we can do together.”
• Managing misinformed clients requires a specific approach: validate first, educate second, correct gently. Starting with “I can see you’ve done a lot of research on this” before steering toward accurate information takes the confrontation out and replaces it with collaboration.
• The communication gap widens in high-emotion moments: end-of-life discussions, unexpected diagnoses, treatment cost surprises. These are predictable scenarios that come up every week and can be practised and prepared for.

What it means for vets, nurses and techs: This needs a whole-of-practice approach across all team member levels. Vets carry the weight of the most difficult clinical conversations, particularly around prognosis, cost, and end-of-life care. Technicians and nurses often handle the follow-up questions and emotional responses after the vet leaves the room. Front-of-house staff set the communication tone from the first interaction. When the entire team is prepared and aligned, the client experience shifts completely.

First steps: Choose the three most common issues clients raise about costs. Draft a clear, plain-language response for each. Then role-play them with your team to refine the delivery.

We tried a new approach to cost conversations last month and it made more difference than any clinical CE I’ve done in years. Clients push back less when they feel like you’re on their side from the start. – Dana M, Veterinarian, Portland, OR

Teleconsulting Skills

Telehealth spiked during the pandemic, dropped back significantly once clinics reopened, and is now rebuilding on a more sustainable foundation. This time it’s not being driven by necessity. It’s being driven by client convenience and evolving regulations that are making remote consultations a legitimate, permanent part of veterinary care. The practices that offer virtual care as a standard service line, not a leftover from lockdown, are already seeing the benefits in client retention and workflow efficiency.

3 key points:

• The skill isn’t “use video software.” It’s conducting a meaningful clinical assessment with limited physical examination, guiding a client through at-home observations, and making sound triage decisions remotely.
• Virtual triage, post-op follow-ups, and chronic disease check-ins are where teleconsulting is proving its lasting value. Not as a replacement for in-clinic visits, but as a complement that saves time for both sides.
• Telehealth also enables collaboration with specialists regardless of geography, expanding what a general practice can offer its clients without adding headcount or referral delays.

What it means for vets, nurses and techs: Vets need to develop the clinical judgment specific to remote assessment, where you can’t palpate or auscultate and have to rely on what you can see and what the client can tell you. Technicians and nurses are increasingly managing virtual triage queues and coaching clients through at-home monitoring. Every role needs to adapt communication style for a camera rather than an exam room.

First steps: If your practice offers telemedicine, volunteer to sit in on a session with an experienced team member. If it doesn’t, look for examples on YouTube to see how other practices run virtual consultations. Learn the telemedicine regulations in your jurisdiction, they’re changing fast and knowing them puts you ahead of most.

Our first teleconsult was awkward. By the tenth one we’d worked out how to guide the client’s camera, what questions to ask upfront, and when to say “you need to come in.” It’s a rhythm you develop. – Priya S, Veterinary Nurse, Manchester, UK

Longevity

Pet owners are increasingly influenced by their own wellness culture, and they’re bringing those expectations to veterinary care. The conversation is shifting from “is your pet sick” to “how do we keep your pet thriving for longer.” By 2027, “wellness plan” will mean something far more sophisticated than annual vaccines and a dental check, and the practices that can have that conversation confidently will be the ones clients seek out and stay with.

3 key points:

• The concept of “healthspan,” quality years rather than just total years, is entering veterinary conversations. Clients who track their own sleep, nutrition, and fitness are starting to ask the same questions about their pets. Being able to meet that expectation is a differentiator right now. Soon it will be a baseline.
• Preventive conditioning, nutritional optimization, and proactive quality-of-life assessments for aging pets are becoming service expectations, not premium extras. The demand is being led by clients, not by the profession, which means the opportunity is there for those who move first.
• This space is attracting serious investment. Loyal (loyal.com), a company focused specifically on extending healthy lifespan in dogs, recently raised $100 million and has a dedicated section for veterinary professionals (loyal.com/for-vets) outlining how longevity science is translating into clinical tools. This is a signal of where the market is heading.

What it means for vets, nurses and techs: Vets can broaden their service offering by incorporating longevity-focused assessments into routine wellness visits, turning a standard check-up into a forward-looking conversation that clients genuinely value. For technicians and nurses, rehabilitation and wellness certifications (CCRP, CCRT) are genuine career differentiators, often leading to higher pay, more autonomy, and a distinct professional identity that sets you apart.

First steps: At your next senior pet wellness appointment, add a basic mobility assessment and body condition trend conversation alongside the routine checks. Explore the Loyal website (loyal.com/for-vets) to see how longevity science is moving from research into practice. If you’re a technician or nurse, look into what a Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner (CCRP) or Certified Canine Rehabilitation Therapist (CCRT) certification involves and what doors it could open for you.

We started asking owners of older dogs one simple question: “What does a good day look like for your pet?” It completely changed the conversation. Suddenly we’re talking about quality of life, not just test results. Clients love it. – Rachel K, Veterinarian, Auckland, New Zealand

AI Literacy

Veterinary AI tools have moved from experimental to clinical in a remarkably short time. Teaching hospitals like UC Davis embedded AI scribes into clinical training in late 2025, and veterinary-specific applications are multiplying across documentation, diagnostics, and client communication. But there’s a meaningful gap between “I’ve used ChatGPT to look something up” and “I’m using integrated AI tools in my clinical workflow.” By 2027, it’s the second version that will matter, and the professionals who are comfortable with these tools will be the ones their teams rely on when adoption ramps up across the profession.

3 key points:

• Understanding how AI tools work, and more importantly where they fail, so you can trust outputs appropriately rather than blindly or not at all. AI scribes can save hours of documentation time, but they still need a trained eye reviewing every note.
• Practical fluency with veterinary-specific AI tools is a different skill from general AI use. That means scribes that generate SOAP notes, but also AI-powered diagnostic tools like automated radiograph interpretation and fecal analysis that are already changing how results are processed and flagged in practice.
• Knowing how to evaluate and choose between AI tools for your context, not just using whatever your practice installs, puts you in a position to influence how your team adopts this technology rather than just following along.

What it means for vets, nurses and techs: Vets need to understand AI-generated clinical suggestions well enough to know when to agree and when to override. Technicians and nurses are increasingly the ones operating AI-powered tools in real time, from imaging workflows to medical record generation, so hands-on comfort matters most at this level. Across all roles, the person who understands these tools becomes the go-to resource for their team.

First steps: Download a free trial of a veterinary AI scribe such as VetRec (vetrec.io), CoVet (co.vet), or ScribbleVet (scribblevet.com) and use it for one week of consultations. Separately, use a general AI tool like ChatGPT, Claude, or Google Gemini to draft a client discharge summary and see how much editing it actually needs. The goal isn’t mastery. It’s getting your hands on these tools and forming your own opinion.

I resisted the AI scribe for months because I thought it would get things wrong. It does sometimes. But once I learned where to check and what to edit, it gave me back about 40 minutes a day. That’s 40 minutes with patients instead of a keyboard. – Sam T, Veterinarian, Brisbane, Australia

Financial Literacy

You don’t need to own a practice to benefit from understanding how one runs. But the professionals who understand the business side are the ones trusted with more responsibility, promoted faster, and better equipped to advocate for their own teams and resources. Vet schools are only just catching up here, with programs like Cornell’s Certificate in Veterinary Business Management signalling that the profession recognises this as a real gap.

3 key points:

• Understanding revenue cycles, pricing models, and profit margins helps you understand why your practice makes the decisions it does. That understanding positions you to contribute to those decisions rather than just executing them.
• Interpreting practice data, things like average transaction value, client retention rates, and appointment utilization, is increasingly expected in senior associate, head nurse, and team lead roles. If you can read a dashboard, you can spot problems and opportunities before anyone asks you to.
• For anyone considering ownership one day, the gap between clinical training and business readiness is where most new practice owners stumble. Starting to close that gap now, even informally, gives you a serious head start.

What it means for vets, nurses and techs: Vets eyeing ownership or Medical Director roles need this most urgently. Technicians and nurses moving into practice management, team leadership, or hospital administration will find financial literacy is the skill that opens those doors. Even for those staying purely clinical, understanding the business context makes you a better negotiator for pay, staffing, and equipment.

First steps: Ask your owner or hospital director if you can sit in on the next monthly or quarterly financial review. Explore the free Benchmarking, Ratio Analysis, and Pricing in Veterinary Clinics from Vetcelerator . Next time a pricing decision frustrates you, ask someone to explain the reasoning behind it.

I used to get annoyed when management said we couldn’t hire another tech. Then I actually looked at the numbers and understood the margins they were working with. Changed how I approached the conversation completely. – Marcus J, Senior Technician, Chicago, IL

Closing thoughts…

The thread running through all five of these abilities is that none of them require you to go back to school or wait for someone to build a program around them. They’re all things you can start on this week. A role-play with your team on a tough client conversation. A free trial of an AI scribe. A request to sit in on a financial review. A simple question to an older pet’s owner about what a good day looks like. Small, concrete steps that compound over time. And then once you find your happy place, build on your comfort with dedicated CE/CPD courses and RACE hours.

The professionals who will thrive in 2027 and beyond will be the ones who got curious early, tried things out, built some confidence, and then helped the people around them do the same. That’s how change actually sticks in this profession. Not from the top down, but from the people on the floor who saw what was coming and started moving. Pick one of these five. Start this week.

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