In the fast-paced world of veterinary medicine, every second counts. Between diagnosing complex cases, communicating with pet parents, and managing the day-to-day operations of your clinic, time is a precious resource. This is where AI tools like Digitail’s Tails AI can revolutionize your workflow. But to truly unlock the potential of AI, you need to master the art of crafting effective prompts.
Whether you’re using AI to streamline administrative tasks, enhance client communication, or generate insights from patient data, the way you ask for what you need directly impacts the quality of the AI’s response. In this article, we’ll cover how veterinary professionals can improve their AI interactions, using insights from articles and studies and the evolving field of veterinary AI.
AI is a powerful tool, but its output is often only as good as the prompt it was given. It relies on clear, structured instructions to provide accurate, relevant, and actionable outputs. A vague or overly broad prompt can lead to generic or inaccurate responses, wasting your valuable time.
Harvard Business says good prompts are “clear, specific, and provide the necessary context to guide the AI toward the desired outcome.”
This precision is essential in veterinary practices, where miscommunication can lead to critical errors. Let’s look at some of the basic and a few more advanced strategies to ensure you are harnessing the full power of AI in your veterinary clinic.
Define the purpose of your prompt before you start typing. Are you looking for a quick patient summary, a follow-up email draft for a pet parent, or a differential diagnosis list? Knowing the desired outcome ensures the AI understands your end goal.
Example:
❌ Instead of: “Write a patient summary for me”
✅ Try: “Summarize the medical history of [Pet Name], focusing on their chronic conditions, recent treatments, and upcoming care milestones.”
Veterinary medicine is full of nuances, and your prompts should reflect that. Providing enough background information will help the AI tailor its response.
Example:
❌ Instead of: “What should I recommend for this dog?”
✅ Try: “Provide treatment options for a 7-year-old Labrador retriever diagnosed with osteoarthritis, focusing on pain management and mobility support.”
Just a note about including client or patient data – here’s where Tails AI shines, because it’s fully integrated with Digitail, it has secure access to your clinic’s patient and client data, and you don’t need to restate those details or wonder if the AI you are using is safe. Tails AI already knows the patient’s medical history, breed, age, and more—allowing you to focus on the clinical question without manually inputting background data and wondering about security.
Framing your prompt with a specific role gives the AI a clear perspective. Forbes suggests this tactic for achieving more tailored outputs, stating, “When you assign a role, you’re shaping the AI’s response to meet a particular need.”
Example: “Act as a veterinary technician drafting discharge instructions for a cat recovering from dental surgery. Include at-home care tips and medication schedules.”
Break complex tasks into smaller steps to guide the AI through your thought process. This is especially useful for tackling multifaceted cases.
Example: “Step 1: Summarize the patient’s history of GI issues. Step 2: List potential differentials based on these symptoms. Step 3: Provide a recommendation for diagnostics and next steps.“
If you have a specific format in mind, show the AI what you’re looking for. This sets a clear standard for the output.
Example: “Draft a treatment plan from this example: [Insert Template]. Focus on the Assessment and Plan sections for a senior dog with suspected hypothyroidism.“
Guide the AI away from pitfalls by explicitly stating what not to include. This prevents errors and ensures the output aligns with your needs.
Example: “Draft a follow-up email for a post-surgical patient. Avoid medical jargon and keep the tone friendly but professional.”
Effective client communication is the cornerstone of trust, compliance, and lasting relationships in any veterinary clinic. Clear, personalized communication helps pet parents understand their pet’s health needs and builds confidence in the care provided. When clients feel informed and valued, they’re more likely to follow treatment recommendations and stay loyal to your clinic. Communication isn’t just about sharing information—it’s about creating connections that lead to better outcomes for pets and their people.
Prompt: “Write a follow-up email for a pet parent whose dog had a dental cleaning yesterday. Include care tips, signs of complications, and a reminder to schedule a recheck in two weeks.”
Adding thoughtful touches like this can make a big impact—but here’s where Tails AI takes it to the next level. With its integration into Digitail and access your clinic’s patient and client data, Tails generates these materials automatically and personalized for each case. You don’t have to manually input details—Tails already knows the pet’s history, the procedure performed, and the care instructions needed. The result? Time saved, communication elevated, and trust reinforced.
SOAP notes are a cornerstone of veterinary documentation, providing a structured approach to recording patient care. While essential, they can be time-consuming to create. AI can help to generate comprehensive notes that save time and improve accuracy and consistency in your documentation. By automating this time-consuming task, veterinary teams can save hours each day.
AI Supports SOAP Note Creation in a few different ways.
Dictation & Transcription ➡️ Speak your notes, and AI converts them into text for easy review and refinement.
Prompt: “Transcribe and organize these notes into a SOAP format: Labrador Retriever, 5 years old, presenting for vomiting. Observed dehydration and lethargy. Administered fluids and anti-nausea medication. Plan: Recheck in 48 hours.”
Ambient Listening ➡️ After passively capturing the conversation during an appointment, the AI could be prompted to distill the recording into a SOAP note.
Prompt: “Generate a SOAP note based on the audio summary of this appointment, highlighting the key observations, diagnostic results, and the care plan discussed with the pet parent.”
LLM (Large Language Model) Summarization ➡️ These systems can analyze raw notes or transcripts, automatically organizing them into the SOAP format—Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan.
Prompt: “Based on these raw notes, create a SOAP: Golden Retriever, limping on front left leg. X-rays showed mild arthritis. Plan: Start on NSAIDs and weight management.”
Integrated AI Solutions ➡️ Tails AI goes beyond basic transcription and summarization. With its integration into your clinic’s patient and client data, Tails can do all of the above and automatically populate the appropriate SOAP fields. It eliminates the need for a prompt or copying and pasting data manually.
With the right prompts, these AI-generated notes can be detailed and are easily edited. This allows you to maintain the personal touch that clients appreciate while ensuring all necessary medical details are included. With AI handling the bulk of the work, you can rest assured that your records meet high quality and compliance standards without the typical time investment.
AI can produce easy-to-understand client handouts or educational materials for pet owners, speaking to their experiences that can easily be translated into their native language.
Prompt: “Write a clear and concise educational handout on Cushing’s disease for [Pet’s Name], a [Pet’s Type] belonging to a pet owner who is a pilot.“
AI is still developing, and this new technology is unique in that it can learn from each interaction. This gives each individual user the opportunity to not only fine-tune their prompts but also train their AI in their specific clinic tone and voice.
However, AI can sometimes miss the mark even with great prompts and training. When that happens:
Refine Your Prompt ➡️ Add more context or reframe your request.
Verify the Output ➡️ Always double-check AI-generated information for accuracy.
Leverage Feedback ➡️ If the AI misses the mark, use its response to identify gaps in your prompt and improve future interactions.
Research like this JAMA study supports the iterative nature of prompting. It found that ChatGPT outperformed physicians when used with carefully designed inputs. This study underscores that effective prompts are key to harnessing AI’s power.
AI isn’t a replacement for your knowledge; it’s a tool to enhance your efficiency. Automate repetitive tasks, but always add your personal touch.
Every clinic is unique. Experiment with different prompting styles to find what works best for your team. Once you find ones that work, create a prompt library.
When using AI for client communication, ensure the tone remains empathetic to build trust and maintain relationships. AI does not replace human empathy, but it can offer more time and space for it.
AI is evolving rapidly. Its potential applications in veterinary medicine are expanding from diagnostic support to real-time data analysis. As One Useful Thing points out, effective AI interactions depend on user skill. By honing your prompting abilities now, you’ll be ready to adapt as AI tools grow more advanced.
In the words of Harvard Business, “AI is only as good as the prompts you provide. Learning to guide it effectively is a skill that will define the future of work.”
In short, effective AI prompting is a skill every veterinary professional can benefit from. By providing clear, specific, and well-structured instructions, you can harness the power of tools like Tails AI to simplify workflows, improve client communication, and enhance patient care. Start experimenting with these techniques today, and watch how AI transforms the way you work.
Want to see Tails AI in action? To learn more about how Digitail can help your clinic thrive, check out the link below.
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