Optimising Veterinary Control: The Role of Modern Field Services

In the recent ‘The State of the Border’ report, 1 in 8 businesses indicated that they have struggled to organise a state-authorised ‘Official Veterinarian’ (OV) to sign UK export health certificates (EHCs) in 2024. EHCs are required for moving food, plant and animal products internationally, and as a result such issues cause a direct impact on trade across the border.

Current Challenges:

The UK faces an estimated 11% shortage in the veterinary sector workforce. Meanwhile, over the past six years demand for vets has increased due to:

• Post-Brexit certification regime
• Rise in pet ownership post-Covid
• Managing increasingly frequent disease outbreaks 

The wider spread of disease means more restrictions on animal keepers to move and export their livestock, stifling economic activity and growth. Total losses from endemic livestock diseases are estimated to cost the UK livestock sector between £290m and £710m per year (BBSRC). Historically, the cost of each exotic disease outbreak has ranged between £2m and £3bn (Defra, as cited by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons). 

The UK APHA (Animal and Plant Health Agency), an Arm’s Length Body (ALB) of Defra relies on veterinarians to help monitor animal health and report outbreaks of infectious ‘notifiable’ diseases in farm animals. In the event of a disease outbreak, vets work directly with APHA and animal keepers to implement control measures such as culling, movement restrictions and disinfection protocols as well as to disseminate information about disease prevention, biosecurity measures and veterinary medicines.  

The shortage of veterinary staff increases the risk to effectively responding to animal disease outbreaks: a significant consideration given the increasing frequency and severity of animal disease outbreaks.  Climate change is a key factor contributing to this increase. For example, a warming climate in the UK has extended the midge activity period by 40 days since the 1980s with potentially severe consequences for animals susceptible to the bluetongue virus. (The Pirbright Institute). As such, the continued shortage of veterinary capacity in the UK risks endangering animals, public health, food security, and economic stability. 

How Technology Enabled Field Services Can Boost Veterinary Efficiency

Technology-enabled field services transformation can make more effective use of limited veterinary resources in the UK, whether during a disease outbreak or as a matter of course.  Lessons from other industries like gas, utilities and rail and others that also rely heavily on efficient field services, provide a blueprint for advancements in veterinary field operations.

Modern field services tools have been shown to help reduce downtime, improve efficiency, boost staff satisfaction, and combat carbon emissions – all of which are areas of strategic importance for the veterinary sector and to Defra.  To maximise impact and drive the adoption of best practices, field services transformation must follow a carefully considered pathway.  Organisations must focus on three key personas pivotal for field services to work effectively:

• The dispatcher
• The field operative  
• The customer

Generative AI is paving the way for more efficient and effective field services and is a key enabler of this transformation.

The Dispatcher is responsible for scheduling the field operatives. Their challenge is one of optimisation and rapid response: getting the most out of the field workforce while being able to mobilise rapid response to emergencies. 

Modern AI-equipped field services tools focus heavily on empowering the dispatcher. They make effective use of data and targeted automation to minimise task repetition and improve decision-making. For example, generative AI can significantly improve work order creation and scheduling. AI can help create work orders from unstructured information like emails or voice calls, reducing double entry and errors. This streamlines the process and ensures accuracy. 

In ‘business-as-usual’ scenarios, such tooling helps plan optimum routes from job to job and minimise vehicle journey times. AI can help match people with the right skills and certifications to jobs, forming optimal crews, and minimising travel.  It is helpful in making optimisations based on live adjustments for traffic or roadworks and responding dynamically to cancellations or rescheduling requests. AI can also handle rescheduling when unexpected events occur, such as an engineer calling in sick. This dynamic rescheduling can be done autonomously or semi-autonomously, ensuring that operations run smoothly even in the face of disruptions.  

With these tools and AI-based recommender systems, we’ve witnessed a fundamental rethink of the traditional job scheduling approach. Some organisations are moving away from a set schedule communicated to the field operatives in advance and subsequently adjusted when disruptions and delays occur. Instead, they are embracing a fully dynamic schedule like those used in gig economy scenarios. In these cases, field operatives and crews ‘subscribe’ to a ‘queue’ of jobs and are only presented with the details of their next job when their current job is completed. 

Organisations that have used these tools have seen as much as 13% improvement in asset maintenance efficiency creating significant cost savings. We’ve also witnessed route optimisation creating an important secondary benefit of 10-15% reduction in CO2 emissions (Capgemini, Scottish Water) 

Additionally, IoT integration is also crucial for predictive maintenance. For example, water level sensors can be used for flood management, and smart seals in vehicles carrying perishable goods can ensure quality and compliance. AI can analyse data from these sensors to predict potential issues and proactively address them. Smart seals in vehicles carrying perishable goods can monitor temperature and quality, automatically triggering inspections if safety thresholds are breached. Crucially, these tools also shine in emergency situations. Inbuilt visualisation tools, automation and AI maximise the speed and effectiveness of any emergency response that a dispatcher needs to mobilise. The dispatcher can quickly and easily reprioritise the schedule and re-direct critical resources to where they are needed the most. This can be done by manually leveraging powerful visualisation tools or with help from a bespoke optimisation model tuned against critical business KPIs to aid the dispatcher in maximising impact. Autonomous agents can either automatically or semi-automatically adjust schedules, proposing new plans that a human can validate.

The Field Operative is tasked with getting the job done, be it routine maintenance, addressing an animal’s health needs or responding to an emergency. Their challenge is one of information – knowing where to go, what needs doing and what to bring.  

We’ve seen as much as a 19% capacity creation when enabling field operatives with AI-based in-field tools. Such tooling, usually packaged in a dedicated app on their work phone or tablet, is designed to be available ‘on the go’ and work in areas of limited connectivity. 

Having access to AI benefits field workers in several important ways. Voice-to-text annotations allow field workers to describe observations as they see them, eliminating the need for after-job report creation. This is particularly useful in environments where typing is challenging due to safety gear or other constraints. 

Natural language queries enable field workers to ask questions and get answers from corporate knowledge and job-specific instruction manuals without needing to search through large documents. This improves efficiency and ensures that workers have the information they need at their fingertips. Some tools also allow field staff to remotely contact an expert via a video link and collaborate on the issue. 

In its most advanced application, AI can also help in analysing images taken by field workers and informing a potential diagnosis, such as assessing the severity of a disease in an animal. This can be further enabled with mixed reality headsets which can overlay information directly onto what the operative is seeing.  Benefits of in-field tooling extend beyond AI use-cases. Operatives also greatly benefit from having a complete history of the customer information, service history and the specific job. Timely prompts and job-specific checklists ensure crews bring the correct equipment, tools, and supplies to complete the job. We’ve witnessed a 25% improvement in first time fix rates because of these improvements (Capgemini, Scottish Water).

The Customer: No transformation would be complete without careful consideration of the end-recipient of the services being provided.

To meet the ever-increasing customer expectations for seamless service, organisations have integrated their in-field workflows with other customer touchpoints to create a coherent cross-channel experience. In this mode, field staff are increasingly seen as the literal ‘face’ of the organisation they represent. For example, customers expect field staff to have the relevant details of any prior interactions they may have had with the organisation providing the service, whether that’s via phone, webchat, email or during earlier visits.  

Customers also expect to interact with the field services in new and different ways. For example, some organisations provide interactive maps so the customer can check when the crew is expected to arrive or provide real-time email or text updates on the progress of the job, or any disruptions they may face and any delays in completing it.  

To further empower the customers and reduce the demand on often stretched field services, organisations are also focused on leveraging the latest technology and AI to enhance self-service. Generative AI can make self-service multimodal, allowing users to upload images or speak to a voice bot. For instance, customers can take a photo of a charging point and benefit from AI automatically analysing the image to diagnose issues and provide guidance. This approach can be applied to various scenarios, such as self-diagnosing health issues with plants or animals.  Additionally, AI can enable self-service booking for appointments, such as scheduling a vet visit, which can be done 24/7 without needing to call during office hours. This not only improves convenience but also ensures that services are always accessible.

 Conclusion

The need for a standard risk-based approach, powered by modern digital field services technology, AI and automation is key to managing field services and animal disease outbreaks.

Disease outbreaks can be all-encompassing events that require a rapid, co-ordinated and decisive response. This is difficult to truly master with a shortage of skilled veterinary resources who are already stressed and overworked and is further impacted by limited data sharing between private veterinary practices and parties involved in response to any emergencies.  

Lessons learned and best practices across the industry can serve as a valuable benchmark of what the art-of-the-possible could look like to inform the next generation of veterinary field services in the UK that are fit for the needs of the animal keepers, veterinarians, the economy and the wider community.   In today’s fast-paced world, GenAI is revolutionising how we approach various tasks and processes and brings game-changing efficiency gains. By leveraging AI, we can indeed enhance efficiency, create more robust services, and provide better customer and employee experiences.