Revolution in pet care shows tech innovation has no limits

We are a nation of dog and cat lovers. A study from PDSA, the vet charity for pets in need, has estimated that there are 11.1 million dogs in the UK and 10.5 million cats.

In November 2024, Spherical Research estimated that the UK pet care market would be worth almost $12bn by 2033. Given that pet owners want the very best for their furry friends, there is a massive untapped market opportunity for business. And the tech sector is starting to gear up to the predicted demand.

Undoubtedly, it is the mainstream availability of relatively low-cost access to powerful artificial intelligence (AI) and, in particular, generative AI, that is enabling what seems like a revolution in pet parenting.

At the recent London Vet Show, Computer Weekly spoke to Kim Bill, head of Nestlé Purina accelerator lab. The pet food’s company startup programme sponsored the Unleashed stand at the show, which showcased some of the startups it has supported. “I think that almost every startup uses GenAI in one way or another to improve the quality of its offerings,” Bill told Computer Weekly. But she said the startups are all using AI in different ways.

What seems to be happening, at least from Computer Weekly’s takeaway from various conversations, is that some of the ways AI is applied in human healthcare has application areas in animal health. AI for Pet, for instance, uses visual AI models to interpret the health, teeth, skin and gait of dogs, using mobile phone images and videos.

Another AI-based app is Sylvester.ai, which is maintaining a dataset of feline facial expressions, to help cat owners and cat sitters use their phones to check if their feline companion is happy or distressed in some way.

Wearables represent another untapped market. Imagine Fitbit for dogs and cats. How may steps has Felix done today? Beyond measuring activity, just like the wearable devices used by people who track their fitness, such devices may also offer deeper health insights.

For instance, understanding how much food and water is being consumed are important metrics to track, to ensure pets remain healthy. There are also smart microchips – the RFID identity tag that fit under the skin of a cat or dog to help track down its owner the animal gets lost. Heart rate monitoring is just one example of the type of sensor being integrated into microchips, to make them smart devices that can communicate with an owner’s smartphone, providing a gateway to cloud-powered pet health analysis.

While pet care is a niche, what these examples illustrate is how quickly new tech-driven innovations are changing aspects of our lives in ways we would never have previously considered.