Presented by Gary Peters · Portland, Oregon · Thursday, September 17, 2026
AAHA Con 2026: four sessions on AI and veterinary client communication
At AAHA Con 2026 in Portland, Gary Peters gave four back-to-back sessions on what AI changes in a veterinary practice's communication with clients. Each session stands on its own, so start with whichever question matters most to your team. Each is also built around a story from outside veterinary medicine (factory electrification, Baltimore's 311 line, smallpox eradication, the telephone switchboard), because those stories show what happens when a new tool meets an established way of working. The recordings, slides, chapter guides and sources are below.
1:30 pm
Beyond the Scribe: How AI Is Transforming the Vet Clinic of the Future
AI scribing is the most adopted new technology in general practice, and it left the clinic's layout unchanged. This session uses factory electrification to show where the larger gains come from, and what a front office redrawn around AI looks like.
2:30 pm
AI-Powered Triage & Client Communication: What Every Vet Should Know
Most after-hours calls to general practices are administrative, not medical. This session looks at what AI phone triage should decide, and what it takes to finish a routine call instead of passing it along.
4:00 pm
The Compliance Gap: How AI Communication Can Improve Patient Outcomes
Listed in the program as "The On-Demand Client & the Compliance Gap." Reminders improve compliance, yet follow-through still lags, with heartworm prevention the clearest example. This session explains why the reminder list never existed in practice software, and what changed.
5:00 pm
The Front Desk of the Future Is Not a Desk
The telephone switchboard, the bank teller and the supermarket barcode each show what changed when routine work started completing itself. Together they describe a front desk that's easier to reach, more relational and better informed.
How the four sessions fit together
The sessions follow AI outward from the exam room. Beyond the Scribe starts where most practices started, with scribing, and sketches a front office redesigned around AI. AI-Powered Triage takes the busiest part of that front office, the phone, and looks at what incoming calls need. The Compliance Gap turns to the calls a practice intends to make and doesn't: the follow-up after a visit, and why the software never produced the list. The Front Desk of the Future Is Not a Desk steps back and asks what the front desk becomes when routine requests complete themselves.
Slides and handouts
| Session | Slides | Handout |
|---|---|---|
| Beyond the Scribe: How AI Is Transforming the Vet Clinic of the Future | Slides (PDF, 22 pages, 2.9 MB) | One-page handout (PDF) |
| AI-Powered Triage & Client Communication: What Every Vet Should Know | Slides (PDF, 23 pages, 3.1 MB) | One-page handout (PDF) |
| The Compliance Gap: How AI Communication Can Improve Patient Outcomes | Slides (PDF, 35 pages, 2.4 MB) | One-page handout (PDF) |
| The Front Desk of the Future Is Not a Desk | Slides (PDF, 34 pages, 3.2 MB) | One-page handout (PDF) |
Companion articles
Gary adapted the sessions into articles for AAHA Trends, AAHA's magazine. The first is published: The on-demand client: How AI can help meet expectations (September 10, 2026). The others are linked here as AAHA publishes them.
About the speaker
Gary Peters is the co-founder and CEO of PupPilot, a client communications platform for veterinary practices, and a co-founder of SpectrumCare. He studied applied mathematics and engineering at Vanderbilt University and earned a master's degree in AI at Carnegie Mellon University, with graduate research at NASA Ames Research Center. He founded two earlier companies through Stanford StartX; both were acquired. He has spoken at NAVC, the Veterinary Innovation Summit and Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine. His team advises the AVMA on AI and collaborates on research with the University of Guelph.