As artificial intelligence becomes a more common tool for consumers researching health information and nutrition products, brands will need to focus less on visibility and more on credibility, according to a recently released MegaTrends report from multinational nutrition company Glanbia.
The company’s comments echo findings from Mintel’s US Consumers & AI: 2025 report, which found AI awareness among US consumers was high but warned that “trust remains a critical issue particularly for sensitive business sectors like healthcare, legal, and finance applications.”
“In this new world of Generative Engine Optimization, it’s not about how loud you shout, it’s about how credible you are,” Sonja Matthews, senior manager of strategic insights at Glanbia, told NutraIngredients. “As an industry, we need to provide truthful, helpful and credible information for AI chatbots to mine.”
Matthews said AI was becoming another way consumers assessed products, alongside social media, influencers and comparison apps, increasing the importance of transparent, evidence-backed communication.
Consumers are demanding greater transparency
The MegaTrends 2026 report identified “Trusted Transparency” as one of six trends expected to shape the future of functional nutrition. The report suggested consumers were becoming increasingly proactive about their health, with 59% describing their approach to healthy living as proactive and 39% saying they had taken “much or a great deal” of action to live more healthily over the previous 12 months.
That greater engagement is translating into increased scrutiny of food and supplement products. According to the report, 52% of Americans were concerned about ultra-processed foods, while 47% said they were making a great effort to reduce them in their diets.
“Consumers today have more information at their fingertips than ever before...from AI tools to social media, influencers and comparison apps, people are interrogating what they buy in ways we just haven’t seen before,” Matthews explained.
She said companies could no longer rely on marketing claims alone and instead needed to ensure information about ingredients, sourcing and scientific substantiation was accurate, accessible and credible.
From SEO to GEO
According to Matthews, the rise of AI search represented a shift from traditional search engine optimization (SEO) towards Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), where AI systems synthesize information from multiple sources to answer consumer questions.
Rather than simply improving online visibility, she said brands should focus on publishing high-quality, trustworthy information that AI platforms could confidently surface.
“For companies, this means investing in scientific substantiation, transparent communication and credible digital content,” she said.
While transparency was one of six MegaTrends identified by Glanbia, Matthews said it underpinned many of the others, including healthspan, healthy weight and personalized nutrition. As consumers increasingly turned to AI to navigate those categories, she argued that credibility would become an increasingly important competitive advantage.
