What did AI actually do for the pet industry in 2025 and what’s the real risk if you don’t adapt going into 2026? This episode is a passionate, real-talk reflection on how AI revolutionized the pet industry in 2025 and why pet business owners can’t afford to ignore it in 2026. I share real examples from inside the mastermind, my personal experiences, and exactly how AI helped us become faster, smarter, and more aligned across every area of our businesses and lives.
From hiring to headshots, route planning to recruiting, I break down how AI isn’t just a tool, it’s a way of thinking. If you’re still treating it like a copy machine, you’re already behind.
In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
-
The mindset shift from “Is AI safe?” to “How do I use AI authentically?”
-
Why AI is not just about automating tasks, it’s about creating freedom
-
How I used AI to write training, create SOPs, and plan goals for my mastermind members
-
The difference between using AI as a thought partner vs. outsourcing your brain
-
Why even your pet sitters and dog walkers need to know AI basics
-
What “wrapped” reports and Elf on the Shelf have to do with your next level of growth
-
My warnings (and tough love) for those still stuck in 2023 thinking
Timestamps:
00:00 — Why ignoring AI in 2026 will cost you everything
02:21 — Using AI to analyze dating data (and why it matters for your business)
05:00 — 30+ ways we used AI in the mastermind this year
07:12 — Rewiring your brain with AI-powered goal setting
13:00 — Thought partner vs. outsourced brain: which one are you?
23:30 — Why even your dog walkers need to understand AI
28:15 — The AI tech stack I swear by (and how to access it all for $20)
Notable Quotes:
“If you refuse to use AI in 2026, you’re going to look like the sitter still using pen and paper.”
“Most of you aren’t using AI wrong—you’re just not using it deep enough.”
“Stop acting like ChatGPT is the entire universe. That’s like insisting skinny jeans are still in when the world’s moved to wide leg.”
“The winners in 2026 are the ones who use AI as a co-strategist—not just a copy machine.”
Resources & Links:
- Try Magai AI Hub: Get access to ALL the major AI models in one place (and 30% off your first 3 months)
- Book a 20-minute strategy call with me.
- Need website copy help? Get in before the rates go up.
- Follow me on Facebook for real-time AI examples
Transcript:
Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and this may be one of the last episodes of 2025. As such, we’re going to talk a lot today about just how far we’ve come and what is actually possible. I hope that this episode excites you, delights you, and lets your brain start thinking about all the things that are possible this year because of AI.
I’m not exaggerating. There has never been a better time to own a business than right now. The things that we have access to and the things that we are able to do without having to go out and try to hire somebody are impeccable. If you ignore AI in 2026, and this is my warning as we look forward, you’re going to look like the sitter who’s using pen and paper, not online scheduling.
At the start of this year, back in January 2025, I was trying to convince people that AI was not a fad and that it was actually here to stay. By the end of the year, now, most of you are no longer asking if it’s safe to use. You’re asking how to use it and still be authentic. That’s what I’ve been here for every step of the way, pacing alongside you.
At the same time, I have a lot happening behind the scenes where we are far ahead. I want to keep being your filter. I want to show you exactly what you need to know for your specific pet business so you don’t get overwhelmed or distracted by shiny objects. AI is a spectrum. You can show up at a mediocre surface level, or you can go deep.
The breadth of what you can do with it is enormous. Thinking that AI can only be used for your pet business is actually a detriment to your life. I hope that through my ideas, the things I show you, and what I share on Facebook, you start to see real examples of people applying AI to their lives.
Earlier today, I posted about a client where we downloaded her entire dating profile and analyzed her behaviors. The data came in as raw files that were unreadable on their own. But once we plugged that data into AI that can interpret spreadsheets, something most of you already have access to, we were able to help her redesign her profile. It was wild.
If you want to run a pet business in 2026 and you refuse to use AI or think it’s wrong, you’re going to fall behind. Clients may not always know you’re using AI, but they will feel the difference in your speed, creativity, and professionalism. Without AI, you’ll continue feeling overwhelmed and overworked.
So many people say they wish they could clone themselves. Now you can. The question is whether you will.
A concrete example of this is Precise Petcare. They introduced AI into their software earlier this year, especially for routing and internal systems. Time To Pet was once considered the top platform, and they were highly innovative in their early years. They made smart business decisions that allowed them to reinvest and eventually sell. Since then, innovation has slowed.
What excited me was seeing Precise Petcare integrating AI. That shows a mindset shift. Earlier this year, I was teaching people how to use AI to improve SOPs, training programs, and business systems. We were doing dozens of things with it. Goal setting changed. We moved from traditional ninety-day goals to AI-assisted breakdowns that translated big goals into monthly themes, weekly affirmations, and daily actions.
That already evolved. In the mastermind now, I built a bot that talks with members for nearly an hour and produces a personalized mantra or script they can record themselves. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between reality and imagination, so we leverage that intentionally.
From there, we’re creating music in genres people love using their own future-focused words. We’re creating images, turning them into video, and reinforcing progress in ninety-day increments because that’s what the brain can process.
We use ninety-day increments because the brain can’t truly comprehend years into the future. It needs small dopamine wins so it can evaluate progress. March comes and you ask yourself, did we get there or did we not, and what did we learn.
We have all these trainings, and I want to explain them because it matters. We worked on building foundations for employees by identifying personal goals, creating full hiring plans, and implementing employee love systems. We created emergency SOPs like what to do if there’s a dog bite. We worked with people scaling multiple businesses at once, combining boarding, training, and retail.
Staffing optimization has been fascinating to watch evolve. Early on, we were manually inputting addresses and routes. Now it’s far more intuitive and efficient. We’ve created newsletters, generated headshots for staff, strengthened operations, and built SOPs, manuals, and training systems.
Every AI model will give you answers, but without strategy and vision, you won’t know if those answers are good. You need to ask what’s wrong with this, where the blind spots are, and how to make it better. Otherwise, you’re not using AI effectively.
We used an AI operator to book a dog walking service on a website. An agent went in and completed the entire process. That happened in March of 2025. We’ve created hiring ads in different tones, optimized websites, built GPTs for care notes and handbooks, and designed entire interview processes.
We’ve developed systems to create highly specific client and employee profiles for marketing and hiring. We’ve streamlined interviews, onboarding, and training as separate systems. We’ve turned images into cinematic videos that look incredibly real.
Many people rely on the image model inside ChatGPT, and it shows. You should not only be using ChatGPT. Things will look very different by the end of next year. I’m only halfway through the list of things we’ve done.
Short-form video creation is so easy now that every single AI training I’ve created is under twenty minutes. Most are ten minutes or less. The biggest challenge is not the technology, it’s creating enough mental space to imagine what’s possible.
I want you to stop using AI in a remedial way, just asking it to reword text and then editing it yourself. That’s surface-level use. Earlier this year, many people were in shock, worried about jobs being replaced or things sounding fake. The reality is AI will replace jobs for people who don’t know how to use it.
It’s like having a powerful car and not knowing how to drive it. I spent the first part of this year focusing on emotional regulation and mindset before technical training, and I’ll continue doing that.
We’re now using AI for things beyond business. We’re analyzing fitness wearables, health data, travel plans, conversation starters, and life organization. People are gathering years of medical data and using AI to analyze it before going to doctors.
You can improve health, parenting, time management, even do fun things like palm reading or Elf on the Shelf scenarios. I take a photo of a room and ask AI to put our elf into mischief. There are endless possibilities.
When you repeat AI tasks frequently, that’s when they should become a GPT, a system, or a style. AI helped me diagnose a car battery issue and find solutions. It can even help style outfits or reduce decision fatigue.
The point is curiosity. Ask if AI can help solve a problem, even if you don’t know the right prompt yet.
One of the most important things you need to do right now is protect your brand voice. If people can tell you’re using AI because your captions suddenly sound generic, that’s a problem. If you don’t normally use emojis or dashes, don’t add them just because AI did. If your branding, keywords, and tone aren’t correct, don’t post it.
Otherwise, you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks. That’s not a strategy. Let me explain something important. There is a difference between using AI as a thought partner and using it as an outsourced brain.
A thought partner means you bring your ideas, values, and context. AI helps you think, draft, iterate, challenge blind spots, and organize, but you are still making the decisions. You’re asking it what you’re missing, where you could improve, or how someone else might critique the idea. You are thinking with it.
An outsourced brain is when you paste in a vague prompt, copy whatever comes out, stop thinking critically, and publish it. That’s when content starts sounding the same everywhere. There is absolutely a default AI tone, and audiences can feel it.
Another mistake people make is not bringing in real-world context. If you’re talking about pet obesity month, loop in a local vet, quote a local pet store, or tag a community partner. AI won’t do that part for you. That’s where your leadership comes in. That’s what turns content into a triple threat.
When people get this wrong, it feels like they hired a random copywriter who doesn’t understand their industry. That is happening everywhere right now, and it’s painful to watch. Done is not better than generic when it comes to your brand. If your messaging is bland, clients will choose the cheapest option or the fastest responder. There’s no loyalty built there.
In 2026, the winners will be the ones who use AI as a co-strategist, not a copy machine.
You should not bring anyone into your business who refuses to understand AI. That includes pet sitters and dog walkers. I’m doubling down on that. If you want a business where you’re not burned out, overwhelmed, and drowning in decisions, you need AI embedded into your systems, and you need people around you who support that.
A dog walker can log notes quickly, then drop them into your GPT, trained with your tone and language. Now your care notes sound consistent no matter who wrote them. Clients always prefer the same style, and this fixes that.
Office managers need even more AI fluency. You can’t properly hire for something you don’t understand yourself. And if you don’t know AI, it’s impossible to evaluate whether someone is doing it well.
Here’s a question for you. If nothing changed in your company except that every admin, manager, and pet sitter had strong AI skills, how many hours a week would you free up? If the answer is a lot, then your next hire needs AI proficiency.
Some of you are still treating ChatGPT like it’s the entire universe. That’s like insisting skinny jeans are still in style when fashion has moved on. You need agility. You need to know multiple tools, multiple models, and how to move between them.
If you build something in ChatGPT, you should be able to recreate it elsewhere. Different platforms excel at different tasks. Image generation, video generation, long-form writing, fast mobile thinking. No one tool does everything best.
That’s why I recommend using platforms that give you access to multiple models in one place. It allows you to reuse your personas and systems across tools without starting over.
This is important because image output inside ChatGPT is not good. It’s just not. You’ll get much better results using other tools designed specifically for images and video. That’s where platforms like Gemini, Nano Banana, Sora, and similar tools really shine.
If you’re not already following me on Facebook, you should. I’ve been talking openly about the shift happening. ChatGPT has publicly issued what they called a code red. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It means competition is speeding up. Google products are something you need to be paying attention to, not just Gemini, but the ecosystem as a whole.
Different models serve different purposes. One might be best for work tasks. Another might be better for long-form writing. Another might be better for quick mobile questions. ChatGPT is a Swiss Army knife, but when you want specialty tools, you need to go elsewhere.
This is a good place to mention Magi. For a small monthly cost, you get access to multiple language models, image models, and video models all in one place. That means you can create a persona once and use it everywhere. You’re not constantly rebuilding your systems.
This matters because you don’t want to gamble on one platform being your long-term solution. When you use a hub that aggregates proven tools, you stay flexible. Anything included there has already been vetted.
Now I want to tell you a story that really illustrates what’s possible. A client of mine was completely done with dating apps. So we downloaded all of her data. Conversations, likes, behavior history, profile versions. We analyzed all of it using an advanced AI mode and identified her communication patterns, boundaries, and what she was attracting.
If we can do that with dating data, imagine what you can do with five years of client notes, visit reports, reviews, scheduling data, or social media insights. Most of you are sitting on a gold mine of information you’ve never analyzed because you’ve been exhausted or overwhelmed.
Businesses are already doing this. They analyze first, then adjust where they want to go. The danger is falling into outdated thinking. Refusing software, insisting on paper backups, slow responses, clunky hiring processes. That’s Blockbuster mentality.
If any of this stings, that’s good. It means you care. It means you still have time to adapt. But the window where this is optional is closing fast.
I have the energy, the excitement, and the training systems ready. I experiment so you don’t have to. I break tools, test them, and show you what works. Recently I gave members client and employee avatar bots that talk with them and produce incredibly detailed psychographic profiles.
When your marketing, messaging, and hiring are built around accurate avatars, everything gets easier. Your content lands. Your hiring improves. Your systems work together.
I encourage you to share this episode, subscribe, and explore the library. If there’s a topic you want covered, tell me. I love requests.
If you want to work one-on-one, the first step is getting to know each other. You can book a short conversation where I’ll give you honest direction. If you’re not ready, I’ll tell you. Sometimes the best advice is to spend nothing and fix foundations first.
If you’re updating your website, now is the time. Rates are rising in 2026. When I help people with copy, we write it live together. You don’t sit on it for months. You learn how I use AI, and you walk away with your voice intact.
We get things done. We don’t let projects drain your energy for months.
Let’s get you started in 2026 in a strong way. If you’re not sure where to begin, a really good place is to schedule a conversation so we can talk it through. I’ll give you my honest truth. If you need to slow down, regroup, or build foundations first, I’ll tell you. I’m honest because your success is tied to mine.
This has been another episode of Bella in Your Business. Thank you so much for spending your time here. I hope you’ll go check out other episodes that resonate with you. You can explore everything on the website, or come say hi on Instagram or Facebook.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of 2025. And remember, when life gets heavy, always keep jumping. Bye for now.