Using AI to boost wellbeing in clinical practice

Updates in technology—including AI tools for things like scribing and radiology—are providing the veterinary profession with a tremendous opportunity to make changes that lead to better patient outcomes, enhanced client communication, and improved practice culture.

But that only happens if those exciting new tools are implemented thoughtfully and with clear goals. And that’s what this interview with Jules Benson, BVSc, MRCVS, and Phil Richmond, DVM, CAPP, CPHSA, CCFP, is all about.

Benson is the Principal at Tapetum Lucidum Consulting and the 2025 Chair at the Veterinary Innovation Council (VIC). With over two decades as a practitioner, industry executive, strategist, and data and technology leader, his focus lies in identifying and applying innovation that can improve the lives of pets, pet families, and veterinary healthcare teams. 

Richmond—a practicing veterinarian and the founder/CEO of Flourishing Phoenix Veterinary Consultants, LLC—leads, advocates, and consults for state, national, and international projects for advancing positive culture and individual, team, and organizational psychological health, safety, and wellbeing in veterinary workplaces.

Efficiency vs. productivity

If you’re a practice manager or owner and hear, for instance, an AI scribing tool can save your veterinarians an average of two hours a day, you might get pretty excited about what you can do with that time. However, Benson and Richmond caution against using these types of tools to pack your team’s already-busy days with more appointments.

Instead, said Richmond, consider how that time can be used to boost staff retention or build trust with clients.

“Can we look at the bigger picture, where if that veterinarian gets home on time, I’m going to retain that veterinarian—versus cost of burnout or cost of lost production?” he asked. “Am I going to be able to use those two hours in a way that’s beneficial to the team? And then also, I’m going to be able to do more of the things to build trust and rapport in the room to connect that client.”

Benson sees efficiency and productivity as two sides of the same coin—but that doesn’t mean they should be confused for one another (even though plenty of people do; he’s even been guilty of doing so himself).

“Efficiency is literally how do we how we spend less time doing the things that we do? How do we get our workflows more aligned and faster?” he said.

Productivity, on the other hand, is about whether we’re spending that time on the things that are worthwhile to the practice.  “If my margin on surgery is 20%, but my margin on pharmacy is 5%, are we spending the right times in the right places in order to drive productivity?” he said. “And then at the same time, what are the needs of our pet families? Are we being productive in the time that we’re spending on those?”

Decisions, decisions

Another key use case for AI in veterinary medicine is streamlining decision-making.

“We can look at the cat, we can look at the blood work, we can look at some of the other data that we have available, the X-rays, etcetera. And I think once that gets to a certain point our brains kind of go, ‘I think it’s probably in this area, but there’s so much information,” Benson said.

This is an area where AI can really shine, he said, because you can feed it those 30 pieces of information, and it can quickly tell you where those 30 pieces of information have pointed to in other cases. Plus, as Richmond said, it gives veterinarians and teams more time to do the thing they probably do really well, which is communicate concerns and expectations to clients.

Additionally, it can be a huge help in spectrum of care or contextualized care. “It hurts if we’re going down the wrong road and spend a client’s money doing different diagnostic tests,” he said. “It’s like, can I get the most bang for the buck for the diagnostic recommendations that I make?”

All of this not only has the potential to lead to better patient outcomes, but also to decreased burnout for the team.

“Negative outcomes are a horrible thing for us,” Richmond said. “Self-criticism is a huge driver of burnout.” But because AI can be a quick and simple way to back up your decision—or help you narrow down your choices—it can truly help wellbeing.

Measuring the right metrics

It’s important to remember, though, that these benefits to the team members are not automatic. They require intention and willingness to acknowledge existing problems or challenges—and that’s not always as easy as it sounds.

“I’ve seen in my career at large organizations that, as soon as a new thing comes in, somebody in the organization walks around with a big hammer and says, ‘What can we solve with this new thing?’ instead of, ‘What are the problems that we have today, what are the outcomes going to be, and how can we measure it?’” Benson said. “I think that’s the same thing in veterinary practices.”

It’s easy to get into productivity metrics, he said, because they’re always there and they change daily, so you can keep your pulse on it. “But the overlap between productivity metrics and wellbeing don’t necessarily have a great overlap,” he said. That’s why he believes it’s crucial to have a plan in place to see how changes in efficiency are helping people—and to know what your tolerance is for the timeline for that happening.

Using the right tools

That’s where things like surveys and measurement tools, such as the PERMAH tool for veterinary workplaces, come in.

“If I walk into a hospital, at best, the only wellbeing metrics I’m going to get are, you know, churn rate, maybe absenteeism, maybe sick days,” said Richmond. “I can ask the practice manager how their team is doing. Other than, ‘everybody’s doing good,’ like, how? How do you know that? Because they didn’t quit?”

At the same time, you know that same manager could give you details on the P&L or the gross revenue of each doctor. The industry just hasn’t, historically, put the same focus on understanding job satisfaction or the level of intention to stay.

And if you don’t know that baseline metric, it’s awfully easy to assume everything is fine, right?

A proactive approach

Richmond, who consults with practices using the PERMAH tool, finds that these insights are useful for seeing the perception gap between how leaders perceive things are going and what the team member experience truly is.

“If there’s no belief that there’s a problem, it’s going to be challenging for me to go in there and use an assessment tool,” he said. Change requires willingness by the team, buy-in from senior leadership, and time—no matter what tools you bring in.

After all, burnout is kind of the canary in the coal mine, Richmond said.

“If we have one person in on that team that’s in burnout, it’s very likely that we’re gonna have 50% of the of the team members that are close or at that level,” he said. And by the time the team has reached that point, it’s extremely challenging to reverse course.

“To recover as a human being from burnout, it takes intentional action, different interventions,” Richmond said. Going on a week of vacation is not going to cut it, and even if you decrease the workload, you’re still likely to lose that person.

“Or,” Benson added, “potentially more damaging, that person stays, right? And you have somebody who’s unhappy in the practice and unhappy with their work, and that can be a seed as well.”

So…is AI fixing problems or creating new ones?

Tools like AI can be exciting and immensely helpful, but unless teams are clear about why they’re using them and what they expect to gain from them, there’s a real risk of exacerbating existing problems rather than fixing them. When leaders remain open to understanding the issues their teams face, though, and implement new technologies accordingly, there’s tremendous opportunity to boost the team’s wellbeing and improve staff retention, which ultimately leads to a better environment for everyone working there as well as the clients and patients they serve.

Photo credits: Courtesy of Jules Benson and Phil Richmond

Disclaimer: Trends content is meant to inform, educate, and inspire by providing an array of diverse viewpoints. Any content published should not be viewed as an official stance, position, or endorsement by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) or its Board of Directors.