Communications budgets are under pressure everywhere. AI tools promise faster output at lower cost, and the temptation to treat agency work as a production service has never been greater. The problem with that logic is not that it is wrong about cost. It is wrong about what is actually being bought.

Trade media coverage has always been one of the most credible signals in B2B communications. What has changed is the number of places that signal now needs to reach. Search engines. Industry platforms. And increasingly, AI systems that generate answers from sources they have learned to trust.

Ingredient brands have traditionally left consumer communication to their customers. That logic made sense when the options were limited. It makes less sense today, when a registered dietitian with 200,000 engaged followers can explain the science behind a branded ingredient more credibly than any campaign a manufacturer could run itself.