State of AI for Pets & Pet Care 2026

AI in pet care is scaling fast: the broader pet-tech market reached about $15.6B in 2025 and the AI-in-pet-care segment alone was $4.2B in 2024. Adoption is now clinical, not just consumer, with 39.2% of veterinary professionals already using AI tools in practice.

A maturing market

The pet-tech sector has crossed from early adoption into scale. Market Research Future valued the global pet-tech market at roughly $15.6B in 2025, projecting growth to $19.1B in 2026 and $52.9B by 2035 at a 12% CAGR. Within that, the AI-specific slice is sizable: Metatech Insights pegs the AI-in-pet-care market at $4.2B in 2024, heading to $15.34B by 2035. The combination of rising pet ownership and higher household spend keeps demand structurally strong rather than hype-driven.

Veterinary AI goes clinical

The most consequential shift is inside the clinic. A Digitail and AAHA survey of 3,968 veterinary professionals found 39.2% already use AI tools in their setting, and 69.5% of those adopters use the tools daily or weekly. That frequency signals AI has moved past trial into routine workflow, primarily through scribing, triage and diagnostic support. When nearly two in five practices use AI and most users rely on it weekly, the technology is becoming embedded infrastructure rather than an experiment.

Diagnostics is the fastest lane

Veterinary AI diagnostics is the highest-growth subsegment. Grand View Research estimated the market at $652.23M in 2024, projecting $2,633.8M by 2033 at a 17.2% CAGR, one of the steepest rates in animal health. Growth is fueled by imaging analysis, early-disease prediction and the economics of pet insurance, where insurers increasingly bundle AI symptom-checking apps into policies. As insurers subsidize these tools, owner access expands far faster than out-of-pocket purchasing alone would allow.

Where consumer demand is concentrating

On the owner side, monitoring is the gravitational center. Industry analyses report that over 61% of pet owners now prioritize AI-enabled devices that detect subtle changes in movement, eating and bathroom behavior, and wearables already account for roughly 45% of pet-tech share. The pattern mirrors human health tech: passive, always-on sensing that flags anomalies early. For builders, the clearest opportunity is connecting consumer wearable signals to the clinical AI diagnostics vets are already adopting.

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Compiled by ToolGlance from publicly reported data; figures link to their sources. Updated 2026-05-30.