Veterinary costs rose 3.5x faster than general inflation in 2024, resulting in insurers facing mounting pressure on claims costs while pet owners struggle with affordability. In an increasingly competitive and price sensitive market, sustained price leading and cost efficiencies are critical. AI is presenting an opportunity that could reshape the economics of pet insurance.
At the heart of this transformation is AI’s ability to efficiently triage pet health concerns, guiding owners to the most appropriate level of care for their situation. Practically speaking, this means a clinically trained AI agent can converse with a pet owner about their pet’s symptoms and come to a conclusion on the condition the pet is experiencing based on the information they receive. From this point, they can accurately recommend the best course of action (visit your practice, speak to an online vet, care for your pet at home).
This intelligent routing doesn’t replace veterinary expertise, it expands it. By handling initial assessment and straightforward cases, AI allows veterinary professionals to focus their time where clinical judgment matters most, while ensuring pet owners receive guidance when they need it, not just during practice hours.
The financial impact of effective triage is substantial. When pet owners access appropriate guidance before automatically booking in practice appointments, unnecessary vet visits are reduced, while urgent cases are fast-tracked.
Waggel, a UK pet insurer, has already rolled out this approach through its Triage product. In order to make a claim in practice, Waggel Triage customers must first triage through their televet provider, Joii Pet Care. This is simply a checkpoint, Joii vets don’t approve or disapprove a vet visit. If the customer doesn’t do this before visiting their vet, they face a £50 penalty.
In an article published in Insurance Edge last November, Waggel reported that 80% of their Triage customers don’t make a claim within 30 days of triaging through Joii. This reduction in claims frequency makes the ~10% discount on their Triage product commercially viable. Importantly, it’s proven popular with pet owners as well. 75% of Waggel’s new customer acquisition is to this triage-enabled product, with customer satisfaction scores for the AI triage experience at 90.4%. Waggel reports savings for its Triage policyholders totalling more than £1m in premiums.
The key to sustainable AI triage lies in the operational model. Automated AI assessment handles the initial interaction and many straightforward cases, dramatically reducing the human resource requirement. A single clinically trained agent can now serve thousands of users concurrently.
The most effective implementations combine the automation technology with human intervention to ensure maximum clinical accuracy. At Vet-AI for example, a ‘vet-in-the-loop’ process is followed, where vets review AI recommendations on cases flagged as requiring additional oversight. This hybrid approach ensures excellent clinical standards while capturing the efficiency gains that make the economics viable. Today, approximately 50% of all clinical outcomes are automated in Joii Pet Care.
Without the AI technology, the human effort involved to triage every case would drive costs up and neutralise the claim savings benefits. The clinically trained and validated AI technology makes this model commercially robust..
The ability to offer sustainably lower pricing will also expand the addressable market. Research from Tesco Insurance confirms that the main barrier to pet insurance is price, with 40% of owners saying it is too expensive. By reducing premiums by ~10%, AI-enabled insurance products bring policy price levels within reach of more households.
This market expansion matters more than ever, with veterinary costs having risen significantly last year and consistently over the last decade (60% increase in vets costs v 2016). As routine vet care becomes more expensive, the value proposition of insurance strengthens, but only if premiums remain affordable. AI triage helps square this circle, allowing insurers to offer meaningful coverage that adapts to escalating care costs.
The result is a virtuous cycle: more pet owners can afford insurance, insurers maintain healthy economics through reduced claims frequency, and pets receive appropriate care when they need it. AI makes pet care more accessible and affordable, at real scale. .
The results from products like Waggel Triage point to the early stages of a structural change in pet insurance. As AI capabilities improve and more insurers adopt triage-enabled products, the competitive pressure to offer similar pricing and service levels will intensify.
This is only the beginning of the benefits that AI can bring to the pet care industry. As the technology advances and training improves, specialist AI agents will be developed to guide pet owners on more specific problems.
Trained AI models that detect issues either proactively or reactively from a single video or image of a pet are also coming to market. The mobility checker in the Joii app, for example, can detect mobility problems in dogs from a simple 10 second video.
Ultimately, the technology is already delivering savings, an excellent customer experience and a level of care that pet owners now expect from their insurer. Importantly, the economics work. This is the first meaningful step on the AI path. The question now is how quickly the industry moves towards these new models and how transformative the impact will be on the industry in the years to come.
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