5 Nov 2026
Panellists discussed the need for vets to become literate with AI and “fight to get at that table” regarding its usage on farms.
Chris Simpson
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Image: © Kaikoro / Adobe Stock
Vets should embed themselves at the centre of artificial intelligence (AI) usage on farms or risk being “left behind”, a leading clinician has suggested.
Speaking in a panel on AI usage at BCVA Congress, Inspiring Vet Care’s UK head of farm, Paul Horwood, warned that unlike in small animal, in the farm sector the farmer is often the customer being targeted rather than vets.
He said: “There’s a big, big risk that if we don’t get involved and don’t prove our worth, that we’ll end up becoming irrelevant.
“If we’re not involved, if we’re not fighting to get at that table, we are going to get left behind.
“So, we have the opportunity of either being the spider at the centre of the web or sitting in a cul-de-sac writing prescriptions, whinging about where we could have been.”
Dr Horwood said while vets “don’t need to become tech gurus”, there is a “training deficit” within the profession and clinicians “do need to get literate enough to understand and ask questions and be critical and cynical”.
He also urged delegates to ensure they’re making the most of the data insights or time saved by their AI use.
Dr Horwood added: “More data doesn’t necessarily mean you’re better… If you’re not changing anything, if you’re not making anything with those decisions, if you’re not doing anything with the information, then it’s just a more expensive diary.
“The big core here is make sure we keep the farmer and the vet and the human in the loop.”
Vet Adele Williams-Xavier, founder of veterinary AI consultants Ai-WX, agreed a degree of AI literacy is needed within the profession, and agreed with fellow panellist Robert Hyde about the need for AI usage to be embedded within university curricula.
Dr Williams-Xavier recommended delegates audit and benchmark AI tools they use, adding: “When reviewing the output of any tool, remember that it can make a mistake, but you can also make a mistake reading that tool and using its output, as well.”
Prof Hyde, Vet Vision AI co-founder and University of Nottingham vet school associate professor in computational biology, warned the technology comes with “significant risk”, but also significant benefits. He noted AI’s ability to help farm vets monitor animal welfare beyond the “0.03%” of the animals’ lives they get to see, including behavioural interactions, comfort and mental state.
He added: “I don’t think we should just focus on diagnostics and small improvements in making things slightly more easy for ourselves.
“To me, this does represent a potential fundamental change in how we care for animals.”
On the notion that AI might replace clinicians, he concluded: “The vet becomes even more important.
“To be able to make really good decisions [using the data], it’s only vets that can do that with a really holistic view of animal care.
“AI makes us more important, but we do have to work to stay there and stay the gatekeeper of animal welfare that we should be.”