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This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

How is AI going to shape feline health and diagnostics, and what's going to define the next decade? You've mentioned that there's three major shifts happening thanks to AI:

Okay, I'll step back a little bit with regard to cats. We believe that from the CATalyst Council work, that less than 1/3 of cats go to the vet in any one year. That's a U.S. number. 

[In comparison], a little over two thirds of dogs in households go to the vet in any one year. And when [cats] go to the vet, they get less care. So we call that the feline medicalisation gap.

The fact is that felines benefit from care no less than canines. Their issues are different because - simple concept - they're a different species. There are differences, but they still have diseases that develop over time. Many of them are treatable. Some of them are avoidable, with changes in lifestyle. In other words, when cats go to the vet and receive proper care, they live longer. 

There's data from IDEXX that the average age of the cat that is under the care of veterinarians and who a dies or euthanised by veterinarians, that average age has grown 2.2 years from 2010 to 2024 (from 12.3 years to 14.4 years).

So clearly, cats not only are benefiting by going to the vet, but the ability for the industry to care for cats is growing, or they're going to vet more frequently, or earlier. So we know that cats benefit from lifelong care, but they don't. 

So, why do [cats] get less care? 

So now the question is, how could AI related technology address each of these? Now there is the introduction of home apps, with Sylvester.ai the most prominent example.

How cats behave in the home is much more natural and comfortable. You can learn a lot about the history of the cat that you would never know without technology such as Sylvester.ai and other related technologies.

Another technology in this area is Pet Acoustics …  This calming music can directly address a second issue, which is stress.

Feeders and automatic litter boxes and water fountains are going to provide more information on cat behaviours, not just their physical behaviours, but their frequency of consumption and elimination. 

So this will give pet owners triggers as to why they may want to take their cat to the vet. Vets are going to be very interested in this, because right now we're still seeing the fourth year of a decline in year-to-year [overall] visits. And yet, cat visits are growing. Veterinarians are recognising if they can start introducing technologies that support feline visits, that this is a good way to counteract what's going on. [..]

Price sensitivity is just something that veterinarians have to recognise, and they need to put together promotional offers to get the cats to the vet. And, combined with these other tools, providing some kind of discounted wellness plan or something to build their cat clientele. [...]

[Clinics] have to come up with their own policies if they want to address that barrier, their pricing or promotional policy. Make a promotion for slow times of the day or slow times of the year, and where your exam rooms would otherwise be empty and fill them with cats.

Do you think that there'll be a problem doing that? I saw a mock advert in your report for a price comparison website, where customers can just check out who charges what prices.

This is what's going to promote those websites that are putting promotions out there. Now, we haven't seen that yet. That was a bit speculative by one of my co-authors, but because there's so much the story on veterinary service inflation, it's been much greater than inflation as a whole. 

A large number of pet owners and a large number of cat owners are being priced out of veterinary medicine, but if they gain an appreciation that proper veterinary care will provide a better life experience for their beloved cat, then I think more will go to the vet. 

When it comes to veterinary care, what are the odds of clinics becoming more transparent in their pricing?

No, [clinics] won't want to, until they start losing cat owners to those who are. It only takes 10% to 20% of the market to push another 60% into following along, because otherwise they suffer a further decline in their clientele. [...]

AI makes it much easier to do price comparison, and then somebody's got to find some advantage to developing one of these apps. And this has happened in many other industries. 

The other part is AI as a decision support tool disproportionately benefits felines, because that's the area that vets feel most insecure. [...] As vets start to use these tools, or they use them properly, their confidence will grow, just like AI in general. 

You were saying in your report that the ability for cat caregivers to access [AI-powered analysis of feline symptoms] helps to even the playing field between vets and the pet caregiver.

[The vet] may have some refinements on the pros and cons of different treatment plans and the costs. But now, the vet can have the conversation with the pet owner where they're much more informed. It actually builds trust. 

Just to change tack: you clearly had an amazing career at IDEXX over 20 years. During your career at IDEXX, did you see similar periods or inflection points that you see again today in feline care?

[...] During the great financial recession of 2009 to 2011, cats suffered the same thing that dogs did, and cats…didn't pop out as an opportunity. In fact, we really only believe this started happening in 2019.

If you had to begin your career all over again at IDEXX from now, but only for cats, what would you prioritise?

IDEXX is a very innovative diagnostic company. They've actually created a bunch of diagnostic tests that are really cat-friendly, and so they just did it as part of their innovation process. But now they're all like, wow, okay, this is why we did it. We were all fully prepared. I mean, I would continue that. 

[...] There are a number of new therapeutics and the various drug pipelines that are cat-specific. I think that therapeutics have lagged dogs … if you've got a treatment, then it makes more sense to test for it. If you can test for a condition, but there's no treatment, that's kind of discouraging. An example would be FIV. You can't do anything about FIV, other than care for the cat, but there's no cure for FIV or FLV.

It's so exciting right now. Which areas of feline health are worth investing in right now?

They’ve come out with a very innovative set of cancer tests for dogs. I'm hoping they'll come out with one for cats cancers too.

[...] I also think there's going to be a revolution in carriers, water fountains, feeding automatic feeding, litter boxes. There's already a fair amount going on there. I think there'll be a lot more as the AI is introduced into those devices. That's a rich area. Eventually AI will go into robotics.

I just want to ask a more personal closing question. After your cycling accident, you redefined your purpose to focus on all kinds of cats, and you now support 41 kinds (40 wild cats plus house cats) of cats. I'm wondering what draws you to felines so much? 

Ah, I can't explain that. I think God told me to take care of cats. And you know, I've always been a cat guy, and in 2016, 2017 while I was still at IDEXX, I loved nature and I loved cats.

And so I asked a very simple question: what kind of cats are in nature? And lo and behold, I found there were 40 different species. I had no idea. And that got me into supporting wild cat conservation.

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Several themes in our conversation with Jon Ayers point to a structural shift in how cats enter (and stay within) the veterinary care system.

Our key takeaways:

In short: AI’s most immediate impact on cats’ access to veterinary care lies in reducing behavioural, informational and confidence barriers.