Frequently Asked Questions

PupPilot is the AI front office for veterinary clinics. Run it as an AI receptionist on the phone system you already have, or choose PupPilot Phone System, which replaces your phones and brings every call, text, email and fax into one inbox. The AI answers the calls your team can't get to — after hours, overflow, and when the desk is busy — handles the routine ones, and transfers the rest to your staff with the caller's name, patient, and reason for calling already on screen. It isn't a replacement for your receptionists. It's the part of the front office that makes sure every call reaches someone.

It can be all three. PupPilot AI Front Office is the AI receptionist and answering service on the phone system you already have. PupPilot Phone System is the phone system itself, with the AI on every line and every call, text, email and fax in one inbox, which makes it veterinary client communication software as well. Most clinics choose PupPilot Phone System, because one system for every call, text, email and fax is simpler to run. It's our recommendation, not a requirement.

No. PupPilot AI Front Office works as an AI receptionist on the phone system you already have, and you can keep it that way for as long as you like — more than a third of PupPilot clinics do. Clinics that want one system for every call, text, email and fax choose PupPilot Phone System, which replaces the phones. Our medical team sets up either one on your config call.

PupPilot integrates directly with your practice information management system (PIMS). When a call comes in, the AI answers naturally, identifies the caller and their pet, pulls up the relevant medical records, and handles the request — whether that is scheduling an appointment, answering a medication question, processing a refill request, or triaging an urgent concern. The entire conversation happens in real time with full clinical context.

PupPilot is phone-first. It answers actual phone calls using natural voice AI — not a chatbot, not an IVR phone tree, and not a text-based system. Callers speak naturally and PupPilot responds in real time with the same kind of knowledgeable, personalized service your best front desk team member would provide.

No. PupPilot is designed to work alongside your team, not replace them. It handles phone overflow during busy periods, covers after-hours calls, and takes care of routine requests like appointment scheduling and medication refills so your staff can focus on the patients and clients in front of them. Think of it as adding a highly capable team member who never takes a day off.

Yes. PupPilot texts from the number it runs for you: your own number once it has moved to PupPilot, or a new one if you'd rather start there. PupPilot handles the move, including the letter of authorization and the port. Clients text the same number they call, and veterinary text messaging in PupPilot is two-way, with every conversation in a shared inbox tied to the client and the patient.

Yes, with either product. With PupPilot AI Front Office nothing about your numbers changes: your phone system forwards the calls you choose to PupPilot AI. With PupPilot Phone System, PupPilot ports your main line, after-hours line, fax and direct numbers, handles the letter of authorization and the paperwork, and keeps your phones ringing until the cutover. Fax numbers move with the phone numbers on PupPilot Phone System, since fax is part of that product. Switching veterinary phone systems and keeping your number covers what the move involves and how long each step takes.

Yes. The PupPilot mobile app makes and takes calls and sends and answers texts on your clinic's number. Calls from the app run on the same veterinary phone system as the desk phones and the desktop app, and its texts go through the same two-way veterinary text messaging.

Yes. After a visit, PupPilot asks the client for a review by text or email, with a link to the review site you choose. It reads your schedule to know when a visit is over, and you choose the appointment types, how long after the visit the request goes out and the wording. Every client whose visit qualifies is asked, and nothing is offered in return; see veterinary reputation management for how the requests work.

Yes. PupPilot can ask for a deposit when an appointment is booked, for the appointment types you choose, and you set the amount for each. The client pays from a link, sent by text or offered online, and when a caller books by phone, PupPilot AI tells them a deposit is needed and texts the link. Deposit rules differ from clinic to clinic, so our medical team walks through yours on a config call; appointment deposits for veterinary clinics has the overview.

Yes. Appointment reminders go out by text and email, drawn from your schedule or from a list you upload, and never two for the same visit. Reminders for overdue vaccines and heartworm tests are written from the patient's record and go out by text, email or an AI voice call, and the replies come back to your inbox. The veterinary reminder software page covers confirmation requests, follow-ups and how each campaign is set up.

Yes. PupPilot builds your clinic's website from what it already knows about your practice, updates it whenever you ask in plain words, and keeps its SEO current, with SEO audits, GEO audits, forms, hosting and unlimited updates as part of the service. The price and what it covers are on veterinary website design, and veterinary SEO explains how search is handled.

Yes, on the veterinary websites PupPilot builds. Your domain is yours. It stays registered to you, and PupPilot will manage its DNS for you if you'd like, at no extra charge. The words and pictures on your site are yours too, and PupPilot makes no claim to them. You can leave whenever you like, and you're free to copy your content to wherever you go next.

Yes. The chat on your clinic's website is answered by PupPilot AI, the same assistant that answers your phones, and it can send a pet parent straight to your booking link. It comes with the website PupPilot builds for your clinic, and when someone needs a person, PupPilot AI gives them your clinic's phone number. The veterinary website chat page covers booking from the chat and what happens after hours.

GEO stands for generative engine optimization, also called AEO: the work on your site that helps AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI answers describe your clinic correctly when pet parents ask which clinic to call. PupPilot does it, and GEO audits are part of its website service: PupPilot tests what AI assistants answer using the questions your own callers ask. Where your clinic isn't named, or the answer is wrong, PupPilot proposes a change and updates your site once you approve. See AI search for veterinary clinics for how the audits work.

PupPilot plans are sized to your clinic. With PupPilot Phone System, communications — unlimited inbound and outbound calling, unlimited business texting, email, fax, number porting and professional desk phones — are included. With PupPilot AI Front Office you keep your current phone plan and add PupPilot AI. Every clinic starts with a one-week free trial after its config call; the website add-on has its own price, on veterinary website design.

Yes. Every clinic starts with a free 1-week trial right after its config call with our medical team. Book the config call at puppilot.co/demo.

PupPilot AI Front Office: PupPilot AI on the phone system you already have — after hours, overflow or every call you forward — booking into your practice management system. The shared inbox your team works from, with your clients and patients alongside every conversation. And the outreach that follows — reminders, follow-up calls and recalls. PupPilot Phone System: The phone system itself — business phone service, unlimited inbound and outbound calling, unlimited business texting, email, fax, number porting and professional desk phones. The AI front office on every line, booking into your practice management system. The shared inbox your team works from, with your clients and patients alongside every conversation. And the outreach that follows — reminders, follow-up calls and recalls. Both lists, group by group, are at puppilot.co/pricing.

PupPilot integrates with major veterinary PIMS platforms. Our integration goes beyond surface-level data syncing — PupPilot reads and writes to your system in real time, accessing patient records, medication histories, lab results, and appointment schedules during live calls. Visit our integrations page at puppilot.co/product/integrations for the full list of supported systems.

Most clinics are fully operational with PupPilot within a few days. Our onboarding team handles the PIMS integration, configures your call routing, and trains the AI on your specific clinic protocols and preferences. We test everything thoroughly before going live, so the transition goes smoothly. With PupPilot AI Front Office the forwarding is set up on the config call; with PupPilot Phone System the port follows the readiness check.

No. PupPilot works with your existing phone number and phone system. Calls are routed through PupPilot transparently — your clients call the same number they always have, with either product.

Yes. PupPilot runs each hospital's lines, texts and inbox under one login, with per-site settings, and the call log covers every line and every location. Each location keeps its numbers, hours, routing and emergency referrals, and follows its own rules for how and when PupPilot AI answers; reporting runs across the group's locations, and an enterprise with several groups gets a view across all of them. The multi-location veterinary software page covers moving one hospital at a time and hospitals on different practice-management systems.

Yes. PupPilot evaluates symptoms described by the caller, cross-references them with the patient's weight, breed, age, and medical history, provides immediate guidance, and routes the call to your on-call veterinarian with full context — including a summary of the conversation and relevant medical records. This means your vet gets critical information before they even pick up the phone.

Yes. PupPilot proactively calls clients to remind them about overdue vaccinations, confirm upcoming appointments, follow up on post-surgical recovery, check in after medication changes, and re-engage lapsed patients who have not visited in over a year. Every outbound call references the patient's actual medical record for personalized, accurate conversations.

Yes. When a new client's history sits at another practice, PupPilot requests the records by phone, email or fax, follows up until they arrive, and files them to the patient with a summary your doctors can read before the appointment. Records retrieval is in beta, and clinics join from a waitlist on the veterinary medical records software page. Beta

PupPilot was purpose-built for veterinary medicine. It understands drug names and dosages, breed-specific conditions, vaccination protocols, common symptom presentations, triage logic, and the actual workflows your front desk uses every day. Combined with real-time access to each patient's chart, this means PupPilot can handle the vast majority of routine clinical questions without transferring to staff.

Of the languages PupPilot AI speaks, English, Spanish and Portuguese are the ones most in use. It can be set up in any primary language your clinic needs. The veterinary phone system page covers how and when PupPilot AI answers your calls.

If a call requires human judgment or falls outside PupPilot's capabilities, it transfers the caller to your staff — or, if no one is available, takes a detailed message that includes the full conversation transcript and relevant patient context. Your team never has to start from scratch when following up on a transferred call.

Yes. PupPilot is fully HIPAA compliant. We provide a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA) to every clinic and maintain strict data security protocols including encryption at rest and in transit, access controls, audit logging, and regular security assessments.

All data is stored in secure, encrypted cloud infrastructure with SOC 2 compliant hosting providers. Data is encrypted both at rest and in transit. We follow industry best practices for data protection and regularly audit our security posture.

Only authorized staff members at your practice can access call recordings, transcripts, and patient interaction data. Access is controlled through role-based permissions that you configure. PupPilot never shares your clinic data with third parties or uses it for purposes other than providing your service.

The easiest way to get started is to book a config call with our medical team at puppilot.co/demo. They set PupPilot up for your clinic on the call, show you real call scenarios and answer your questions, and your free trial starts right after.