diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 78d634f26d..721a7ce488 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ core = [
     "open-clip-torch>=2.23.0,<2.26.1",
 ]
 openvino = ["openvino>=2024.0", "nncf>=2.10.0", "onnx>=1.16.0"]
-vlm = ["ollama<0.4.0", "openai", "python-dotenv","transformers"]
+vlm = ["ollama>=0.4.0", "openai", "python-dotenv","transformers"]
 loggers = [
     "comet-ml>=3.31.7",
     "gradio>=4",
diff --git a/src/anomalib/models/image/vlm_ad/backends/ollama.py b/src/anomalib/models/image/vlm_ad/backends/ollama.py
index 4c712cdba8..75bcaf143c 100644
--- a/src/anomalib/models/image/vlm_ad/backends/ollama.py
+++ b/src/anomalib/models/image/vlm_ad/backends/ollama.py
@@ -44,8 +44,7 @@
 from .base import Backend
 
 if module_available("ollama"):
-    from ollama import chat
-    from ollama._client import _encode_image
+    from ollama import Image, chat
 else:
     chat = None
 
@@ -101,7 +100,7 @@ def add_reference_images(self, image: str | Path) -> None:
         Args:
             image (str | Path): Path to the reference image file
         """
-        self._ref_images_encoded.append(_encode_image(image))
+        self._ref_images_encoded.append(Image(value=image))
 
     @property
     def num_reference_images(self) -> int:
@@ -144,7 +143,7 @@ def predict(self, image: str | Path, prompt: Prompt) -> str:
         if not chat:
             msg = "Ollama is not installed. Please install it using `pip install ollama`."
             raise ImportError(msg)
-        image_encoded = _encode_image(image)
+        image_encoded = Image(value=image)
         messages = []
 
         # few-shot