Jason Szumski’s path reflects vet medicine’s AI career shift

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Jason Szumski, DVM, is being framed as a sign of where veterinary careers may be heading next: not away from medicine, but into adjacent roles that try to solve medicine’s operational problems. In a new Vet Life Reimagined profile, the recent graduate and practicing veterinarian is presented as part of a new generation using clinical training to build AI tools for the profession, rather than waiting years to influence how practices work. That timing matters, because the veterinary AI conversation has moved quickly from curiosity to implementation, especially around ambient documentation and AI scribes. It also fits a broader editorial thread from Vet Life Reimagined, where recent conversations have highlighted nontraditional veterinary paths, second-career entrants, and leaders using systems thinking and technology to redesign care delivery. (aaha.org)

Szumski graduated from the University of Illinois in 2023 and co-founded VetSOAP with Aaron Smiley, DVM. AAHA identified VetSOAP in its 2024 roundup of AI applications in veterinary practice, describing it as a tool that automates SOAP-note generation from audio recordings and is designed to reduce manual writing or dictation. On VetSOAP’s site, the company says it was created by veterinarians, positions accuracy as its top priority, and markets the software as a way to save clinicians up to an hour a day. (aaha.org)

That founder story lands in a profession that has been primed for this kind of product. Documentation overload, uneven record quality, and after-hours charting have become familiar sources of frustration for veterinarians and support teams. In a recent dvm360 interview, Kathleen Allison-Black, DVM, said ambient AI scribing can improve immediacy and completeness in medical records, while also helping teams generate client communications more efficiently. At the same time, AAHA’s guidance on generative AI scribing has emphasized that these systems still require close human review, particularly because they can introduce false positives, false negatives, or over-interpretation of clinical language. (dvm360.com)

What’s becoming clearer is that AI adoption in veterinary medicine is being discussed less as a pure tech trend and more as part of a larger rethink of career design and practice sustainability. In Vet Life Reimagined’s conversation with Christie Long, DVM, Long describes entering veterinary medicine as a second career after working in software and business, then moving through clinical practice, telehealth, and leadership at Modern Animal. Her story is used to argue that people coming from outside traditional veterinary pathways can bring systems, innovation, and listening skills that help reshape care models. In a separate episode, Mike Mossop, DVM, describes AI as a “co-pilot” for the profession — a digital assistant that should enhance, not replace, relationship-centered care — and ties innovation to patient care, client experience, and professional wellbeing. Together, those conversations reinforce the idea that tools like AI scribes are being judged not only on efficiency, but on whether they make veterinary medicine more sustainable and more human.

That tension, promise versus governance, also shows up in broader industry commentary. On Andy Roark’s platform, discussions around AI scribes have been notably supportive of their administrative value, while still pressing on quality control, privacy, and the lack of standardized oversight. Roark said he’s been impressed by AI scribes as a way to reduce workload, but also noted that everything still needs to be checked. In the same discussion, veterinarian Petra Harms raised questions about what testing has been done on these products and what standards practices should accept before putting them to work in clinics. (drandyroark.com)

There’s also a practical business layer beneath the optimism. VetSOAP’s current privacy policy says the company itself does not store submitted audio, transcripts, or summaries, but that third parties may store data under their own policies, and that no submitted user data is retained to train any LLM model. However, the company’s updated terms also say de-identified service data may be used to improve AI models and for analytics, with user consent and account-level controls. For practices evaluating tools in this category, that kind of distinction matters, especially because veterinary records can include sensitive client and patient information even if the regulatory framework differs from human healthcare. (vetsoap.ai)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, Szumski’s trajectory is useful because it connects workforce, education, and technology in one example. It suggests that veterinary training is becoming a launch point not only for clinical care, but also for product development, informatics, and workflow redesign. That may appeal to younger veterinarians looking for nontraditional career paths, but it also puts more pressure on the profession to define what “good” AI implementation looks like. The surrounding Vet Life Reimagined coverage sharpens that point: Long’s career pivot from software and business into veterinary leadership, and Mossop’s emphasis on AI as a support layer for relationship-centered care, both frame innovation as a means to safer, more sustainable work rather than an end in itself. If veterinarian-founded companies can build tools that genuinely reduce record burden without creating new risks around accuracy, consent, or data use, they could help practices protect clinician time and improve consistency in the medical record. If not, they may simply add another layer of work that still requires cleanup and oversight. (aaha.org)

What to watch: The next phase is likely to be less about novelty and more about proof: evidence on time savings, note quality, privacy practices, integration into practice workflows, and whether veterinary teams trust these tools enough to make them routine. Watch, too, for more veterinarian-entrepreneurs following a similar path, as AI literacy and workflow design become part of the profession’s evolving career map. And watch how leaders across the field continue to frame AI: not as a replacement for clinical judgment or client relationships, but as a background tool that may free up time for listening, communication, and more sustainable care delivery. (vetsoap.ai)