AI is going to the dogs…and the cats

AI expert, scientist and businessman Andrew Ng has said “It is difficult to think of a major industry that AI will not transform. This includes healthcare, education, transportation, retail, communications, and agriculture.”  He’s right. As a pet healthcare company, AI is becoming integral across our veterinary, diagnostics, nutrition and tech businesses.  

Innovators, scientists, data analysts and many others have been focused on using AI to improve our pet services and products so that we can meet pet and pet owner needs – or even better, anticipate problems and offer tailored solutions faster than ever before. In fact, next week I’ll be joining Andrew Ng along with other AI experts and colleagues from across the Mars business for an AI Festival, where I’ll have the chance to share some of these AI-driven solutions for pets.  

One of these is Antech’s RenalTech, which quite literally uses AI to take the surprise out of a cat’s diagnosis with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). The no surprise factor here is that RenalTech is a diagnostic tool that can predict if a cat will develop CKD up to two years before the disease manifests. This is one of our breakthrough products that support preventive veterinary medicine, which makes me proud.  

Another example of AI making a difference is when the Pet Insight Project team teamed up with data scientists at our Waltham Petcare Science Institute to develop an algorithm that calculates personalised food portions for dogs wearing a Whistle Fit activity monitor.  With pet obesity on the rise, and already affecting more than half of cats and dogs, this is an AI-based tool that helps owners adapt daily food quantities depending on their dogs’ activity levels, age, breed, weight and dog food brand. 

We also partner with veterinary experts, to learn even more about how AI ‘happens’ in veterinary hospitals. For example, last month we sponsored an event with the British Veterinary Association, to explore how the many changes that AI, big data, and virtual reality have brought us will change veterinary care. More on that here from Severine Tasker, CMO of our Linneaus veterinary business in the UK.  

It’s clear we’re moving toward a reality for AI where pet owners, veterinarians, and researchers collaborate – and pets are at the heart of it.  And that is where my heart lies!