THE 2025 PETS+ BIG SURVEY asked pet retailers and service providers how they use AI. 71% of respondents said they utilize it for online content creation, 64% for marketing and sales, and 34% for communications with clients, employees and vendors. They also reported positive measurable outcomes.
Among them:
- Time compression in marketing and operations projects, such as creating SOPs that “in the past have taken literally years.”
- Expanded capabilities for developing messaging, commercial copy, and even “guides for educating staff on products.”
- Revenue impacts from creating ad campaigns, events and store policies by leaning on AI as a “sidekick and personal business advisor.”
Pet businesses that go beyond strategic brainstorming, however, see even more productivity gains from building workflows and delegating execution. They’re not working longer hours; they’re multiplying output. The saved time goes toward customer relationships, team development and growth initiatives that move businesses forward.
This isn’t about technical skills. It’s about implementation discipline. And the gap compounds daily.
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Make AI Work for Your Pet Business
The good news: The implementation gap isn’t about AI literacy. It’s about prompt specificity. And that’s a learnable skill.
The shift from strategic advisor to tactical executor happens in how tasks get delegated to AI. Instead of “Help me develop email subject lines for our customer appreciation event,” effective prompts look like this:
“Write four email subject lines for a Customer Appreciation Weekend featuring 20% off premium food brands. Our customers are 60% female, age 35-55, value quality and convenience. Subject lines should be less than 50 characters.”
The difference: specific parameters that produce immediately usable outputs.
Build repeatable workflows: When a prompt produces quality results, save it as a template. Change the details (product, offer, date) but keep the structure. One Big Survey respondent mentioned using ChatGPT’s memory feature to maintain context: “It remembers what I have asked in the past and can use that info to create copy that relates to things I am currently doing in the store.”
Scale up month by month:
- Weeks 1-2: Social captions and email drafts
- Month 2: Customer service templates, review responses
- Month 3: Training materials, policy documents, SOPs
- Quarter 2: Data analysis, planning scenarios
Think about it: Four hours saved monthly on newsletters equals 48 hours annually. That’s more than a full work week from just one application of AI!
When asked what the ultimate benefit of AI will be, 44% of survey respondents said it will “Add a new ‘brain’ to my business that can help me come up with brilliant new ideas and plans.” They aren’t wrong. Thinking bigger matters. But AI’s competitive advantage doesn’t come from the quality of strategic conversations alone.
The true transformation happens when you move from exploring ideas to delegating specific tasks with clear parameters. You can start today: Pick one task you do weekly and write a specific prompt for it, you can even ask AI to help you write it.
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