AI Is Changing How Brands Are Discovered. Communications Needs to Change With It.

A bottle of wine can take years to make. A reputation can take decades, or generations, to build. And increasingly, a consumer can ask an AI platform about either one and receive an answer in seconds.

That contrast has been on our minds at Colangelo & Partners as we think about what artificial intelligence actually means for communications.

Much of the early conversation around AI in our profession has focused on how communications professionals can use the technology: faster research, more efficient workflows and automation. Hello, easier email inbox organization!

Those applications matter. But we believe there’s a much bigger shift happening.

AI isn’t simply changing how communications professionals work. It’s beginning to change the information ecosystem we’re responsible for influencing.

For an agency specializing in wine, spirits and food, industries where reputation, expertise and third-party authority have always carried enormous weight, that has significant implications.

Discovery Is Changing

Consider something as simple as choosing a bottle of wine.

A consumer looking for a Napa Cabernet might traditionally have typed “best Napa Cabernet” into a search engine, browsed several articles, looked at critic scores, visited a retailer or winery website, and perhaps read consumer reviews before making a decision.

Increasingly, that same consumer can ask an AI platform something far more specific:

I’m looking for a Napa Cabernet under $100 from a respected producer that isn’t overly fruit-forward. What should I buy?

A traveler planning a trip to wine country might ask:

I’m visiting Willamette Valley for two days. Which wineries should I visit if I’m most interested in serious Pinot Noir and Chardonnay?

Instead of navigating a series of individual sources, the consumer may receive a synthesized answer.

For communicators, that raises an important question: Where did that answer come from? 

Because it didn’t appear from nowhere. It was informed by an existing information ecosystem-the very ecosystem communications professionals have spent decades helping brands navigate.

Wine and Spirits Have Always Had a Complex Ecosystem of Influence

Reputation in wine and spirits has never been shaped by a single voice.

A brand can be influenced by critics and scores, trade publications, national media, sommeliers, distributors, retailers, restaurants, creators, travel coverage, its own digital presence and decades of accumulated storytelling.

A critic may establish quality credentials. A sommelier can influence the trade. A major publication can introduce a producer to a much broader audience. A retailer can affect discovery at the point of purchase. A winery’s own website establishes the facts and stories it puts into the world.

Each contributes a different signal.

Increasingly, AI adds another layer to that ecosystem, not necessarily replacing those voices, but synthesizing information from across them. That changes the way we have to think about influence.

For a specialized agency like ours, the intersection between traditional authority and emerging AI discovery is particularly important. We’ve spent decades understanding the journalists, critics, trade voices and cultural conversations that shape reputation in our categories.

Now we also need to understand how those signals may influence what AI platforms understand, surface and recommend.

The Questions We’re Asking Are Changing

When we first began exploring AI at C&P, many of our questions were understandably focused on how we could use it.

But increasingly, we’re asking another set of questions:

• What does the AI ecosystem know about our clients?
• How does that compare with what our clients actually want to be known for?
• Which sources are shaping that understanding?
• What narratives are being reinforced?
• How does a brand appear compared with its competitors?
• Where are our clients absent from conversations they should be part of?

And perhaps most importantly:

• What happens when an earned media story doesn’t only reach the people reading it today, but may also contribute to the information environment AI systems use to answer questions tomorrow?

These aren’t simply technology questions. They’re communications strategy questions.

Earned Media May Have a New Layer of Influence

For decades, communications professionals have thought about earned media largely through the lens of human audiences.

• Who reads this publication?
• How influential is this journalist?
• Will the right trade audience see this story?
• Will this coverage build awareness, credibility or reputation?

Those questions remain essential.

But now there may be another consideration: what happens to credible information after it’s published?

An article has an immediate audience. But the information contained within it can also become part of a much larger digital information environment.

As AI increasingly becomes another way people search for information, compare options and ask for recommendations, communicators need to think more broadly about how credible information travels and where authority originates.

That doesn’t mean we suddenly pursue media coverage for machines instead of people. The audience for communications remains human. But the path information takes to reach people is changing.

And that makes understanding source authority, reputation and the broader information ecosystem increasingly important.

From Media Visibility to AI Visibility

This shift is also beginning to change how we think about visibility.

At C&P, we’re beginning to examine what we call AI Visibility: how our clients appear across major AI platforms, what narratives are associated with them, how those results compare with competitors and which sources appear to be influencing those answers.

This isn’t about chasing a single new metric or declaring traditional communications measurement obsolete. It’s about developing a more complete picture of the information environment surrounding a brand.

If a winery wants to be recognized as an authority on a particular region, grape variety, production philosophy or issue, does the broader information ecosystem support that position?

If competitors consistently appear in conversations where our client is absent, why?

If an AI platform describes a brand primarily through its history when the company has spent years investing in innovation, hospitality or a new generation of leadership, what does that tell us?

Which credible sources are reinforcing the existing narrative?

And what combination of earned media, owned content, digital strategy and expert authority might help close the gap?

For us, AI Visibility isn’t simply about asking, “Does our client appear?”

The more useful question is: “What does the information ecosystem understand about our client and does that reflect the reputation we’re trying to build?”

Earned, Owned and Digital Can No Longer Operate in Silos

That question also challenges some of the traditional boundaries within communications.

Historically, disciplines have often operated in parallel.

PR teams focused on earned media. Digital teams focused on websites and search. Marketing teams managed owned content and other channels.

But AI discovery doesn’t necessarily respect those organizational boundaries.

A journalist’s article, a brand’s website, an expert interview, a critic review and other authoritative digital sources can all contribute to the broader information environment surrounding a brand.

That means communications strategy increasingly needs to consider how earned media, owned content and digital presence work together to establish authority.

For agencies, that requires closer integration.

For clients, it means thinking beyond individual placements or campaigns toward the larger body of credible information their communications are building over time.

The Fundamentals Matter More, Not Less

There is an understandable temptation whenever disruptive technology arrives to assume that everything that came before it has suddenly become obsolete. We believe almost the opposite may be true.

Great communications still depends on credibility. And in wine and spirits, we’re reminded of that every day.

A relationship with a journalist built over years matters. A critic’s trust matters. A sommelier recommending a bottle tableside matters. A distributor believing in a producer matters. A winemaker sitting across from someone and explaining why a vineyard is special matters.

AI doesn’t make those relationships obsolete. If anything, it gives us another reason to think carefully about where credible information originates and how far it may ultimately travel.

In an environment increasingly filled with synthetic content, verified information and authoritative sources become more, not less, valuable.

Technology can make communications faster. It can help us analyze more information and see patterns that would have been difficult to identify before. But speed doesn’t create credibility. Technology doesn’t replace expertise. And an AI-generated story doesn’t earn trust simply because it can be produced quickly.

Trust still has to be earned. Authority still has to be built. And good stories still have to be true.

Understanding a New Information Ecosystem

For communications professionals, the opportunity isn’t to abandon the fundamentals that have always driven our profession. It’s to understand how those fundamentals operate in a new information environment.

For C&P, that means continuing to do what we’ve always done, understand our clients, build relationships, earn credible visibility and tell stories that matter, while developing a much deeper understanding of how those stories travel, how authority is established and how brands are discovered.

That’s particularly important in wine and spirits.

These are industries built around people, place, expertise and experience. Technology may change how someone discovers a winery, learns about a region or chooses a bottle. But behind that recommendation is still a real vineyard, a real producer, a real history and a reputation that has been built over time.

Our job is to understand how those worlds now connect. Because increasingly, communications isn’t only about getting the right story in front of the right audience.

It’s about understanding the information environment that helps people find that story in the first place.