More than 675 animal health executives, investors, entrepreneurs and other industry leaders gathered in Kansas City for the 2026 Animal Health Summit. Presentations and discussions centered on three themes: innovation that eases workloads, broader access to care, and a growing focus on longevity.
Innovation that simplifies
As veterinary teams face rising workloads and a growing number of technologies, speakers said innovation increasingly will be judged by whether it reduces work for veterinary teams.
"We have to look at it through the lens of, is this going to take work off of the team, or are we adding another step?" said Julia Loew, chief commercial officer for MWI Animal Health. She said disconnected technologies can create fragmented records and duplicative work, adding to the mental load on veterinary teams. Automation and connected workflows, she said, can instead free up time for patient care and team engagement.
Industry consultants Chad Terrell and Juerg Baggenstoss of Stonehaven Cozmix said roughly two-thirds of industry growth over the past decade has come from new products and innovation. They said they expect innovation to remain a primary growth driver even as the overall market matures, adding that innovation spans a range from major therapies to smaller changes in formulation or delivery.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly part of the industry's approach, but executives said differentiation is shifting. Rauf Gurbuz, U.S. president and general manager of Hill's Pet Nutrition, said AI differentiation will come from tools built on proprietary clinical and biological data and integrated into company operations.
Scott Bormann, senior vice president, North America, at Merck Animal Health, said, "It's not a matter of whether it's going to be here. It's a matter of how you choose to use it."
Focus on access and affordability
Panelists said scientific advances have limited value if veterinarians, producers or pet owners cannot access them. Loew described access to care as a structural issue across both companion and production animal health. She said pet owners increasingly expect continuous, affordable care, while the production sector faces ongoing shortages of veterinarians and skilled labor needed to deliver new solutions at scale.
"You need to have the right infrastructure, the right economics and the right delivery mechanisms," Loew said.
Terrell and Baggenstoss said about $15 billion in revenue among leading animal health brands is already off patent or will lose patent protection in coming years, while generics are being introduced more quickly than in the past. They said this trend could help meet consumer demand for affordable medicines while increasing pressure on both pioneer and generic manufacturers to differentiate through continued innovation.
Shift toward longevity
As pets live longer, speakers said the industry is placing greater emphasis on extending healthy years. Terrell and Baggenstoss identified longevity, along with oncology, chronic kidney disease and metabolic disease, as areas likely to draw investment and innovation. They said advances in treatment and diagnostics are related: Better therapeutic options increase the value of identifying disease earlier, supporting a shift from episodic treatment toward earlier intervention and ongoing care.
Michael Johnson of BSM Partners, presenting consumer insights, said heart health, kidney and urinary health, and longevity rank among the functional benefits pet owners most want in nutrition products, even though consumers may struggle to evaluate whether those products deliver results.
"If you can crack longevity in the pet space and prove it, that is the holy grail," Johnson said.
Trust as a common thread
Trust was a theme across each of the summit's topics. Johnson described pet care as operating within a "trust economy," in which consumers have access to more information but often lack the scientific expertise to assess competing claims. He said that makes clear communication from trustworthy sources more important.
Keynote speaker Joel Goldberg, a Kansas City Royals broadcaster, also focused on trust, drawing on nearly two decades of experience traveling with the team. "The business of people is the business of trust," Goldberg told attendees.
Goldberg's framework, building trust gradually, strengthening it by making life easier, and anchoring it through meaningful interactions, also applied to an industry adopting AI and automation, he said.
"I'm a firm believer in embracing the technology, but we can't let go of the personal relationships," Goldberg said. "The relationship piece still is the heart of it all."
