According to a new survey, 43% of 2,000 U.S. pet owners reported using AI to find information about their pets’ nutrition or health. I can’t decide if I should feel encouraged that a good portion of the respondents are seeking information at all, or alarmed that so many are farming out their “fact” finding to chatbots. (The survey was conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Darwin’s pet food.)
Full disclosure: I use AI for specific tasks on the job (writing articles is not one of them!); and I admit that when I do a Google search these days, I don’t always go to the original sources that supposedly inform the AI overview now presented first at the top of the search results page. It depends on the type of question I’m asking or information I’m seeking.
For instance, if I were asking an “offbeat” question like ones 47% of the respondents to this new survey copped to posing to AI, the answers delivered by said AI might be fine, and maybe as amusing as the questions themselves. Examples included “Can pets see ghosts?”, “Do dogs know they are dogs?” and “Is my pet jealous?”
Yet if it’s a serious pet nutrition or health question, I’m looking to original, credible, knowledgeable sources. That’s why I find these data points from the survey rather alarming: 90% of respondents said AI and other online sources have made them feel more informed, and 59% reported changing how they care for their pets based on AI recommendations. (Yikes!)
On the more encouraging side: 50% said they feel at least somewhat unsure about their pet care decisions after researching online, and 89% believe AI can’t replace their own intuition. Only 27% said they trust AI advice as much as that from human experts. (Which doesn’t seem to jibe with the 59% who have changed their pet care based on AI advice?)
Pet nutrition a top topic to ask about
Aside from my personal opinions on how these pet owners use AI, the survey does offer some potentially useful insights for pet food and treat brands on what and how owners seek information:
- 55% said they most commonly ask AI about pet nutrition, followed closely by specific pet health symptoms or illness, at 54%; 52% use it to research pet care products or use prompts about pet behavior to satisfy their general curiosity. (OK, I confess, I’ve done that, too!)
- Reassuringly, 71% said veterinarians remain their most trusted source for health and nutrition advice, compared to 14% who rely primarily on AI tools. “When advice conflicts, 64% say they follow their vet, while only 12% side with AI,” the survey report says.
The survey results indicate AI just adds to the information overload experienced by, well, most of us. Tellingly, 90% of respondents said AI and online resources have made them feel more informed, but 50% admit they at least sometimes feel unsure about their pet care decisions after researching online. And for some pet owners, “that uncertainty turns into anxiety: 30% say using AI has made them more worried about their pet’s health,” the report says.
I’ve read that using AI and other technologies can cause the same uncertainty and concern when it comes to human health — and indeed, pet health is the top “trigger” for these pet owners to second-guess themselves, at 47%; it’s 33% for nutrition.
So, thankfully, adding to veterinarians named as the most trusted information source, the respondents also prioritize professional credentials (57%), personal experience (34%) and scientific studies (31%) as trustworthy sources. “Just 11% say the accuracy of AI-generated responses is a top trust factor,” according to the report.
It concludes with this data point: 52% of respondents believe AI will become a normal part of pet care within five years. I’d actually shorten that timeline; I think it’s likely to happen within two years. Yet as long as pet owners believe they need to check pet care information coming from AI and online against much more credible sources, that seeming inevitability might be OK.
