diff --git a/spacy/language.py b/spacy/language.py
index d71c27406..afc988583 100644
--- a/spacy/language.py
+++ b/spacy/language.py
@@ -545,13 +545,14 @@ class Language(object):
 
         if component_cfg is None:
             component_cfg = {}
+        component_deps = _count_pipeline_inter_dependencies(self.pipeline)
         # Determine whether component should set annotations. In theory I guess
         # we should do this by inspecting the meta? Or we could just always
         # say "yes"
-        for name, proc in self.pipeline:
+        for i, (name, proc) in enumerate(self.pipeline):
             component_cfg.setdefault(name, {})
             component_cfg[name].setdefault("drop", drop)
-            component_cfg[name].setdefault("set_annotations", False)
+            component_cfg[name]["set_annotations"] = bool(component_deps[i])
         for name, proc in self.pipeline:
             if not hasattr(proc, "update"):
                 continue
@@ -1159,6 +1160,25 @@ class DisabledPipes(list):
         self[:] = []
 
 
+def _count_pipeline_inter_dependencies(pipeline):
+    """Count how many subsequent components require an annotation set by each
+    component in the pipeline.
+    """
+    pipe_assigns = []
+    pipe_requires = []
+    for name, pipe in pipeline:
+        pipe_assigns.append(set(getattr(pipe, "assigns", [])))
+        pipe_requires.append(set(getattr(pipe, "requires", [])))
+    counts = []
+    for i, assigns in enumerate(pipe_assigns):
+        count = 0
+        for requires in pipe_requires[i+1:]:
+            if assigns.intersection(requires):
+                count += 1
+        counts.append(count)
+    return counts
+
+
 def _pipe(examples, proc, kwargs):
     # We added some args for pipe that __call__ doesn't expect.
     kwargs = dict(kwargs)
diff --git a/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_pipe_methods.py b/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_pipe_methods.py
index d42216655..0397d490d 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_pipe_methods.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_pipe_methods.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import pytest
-from spacy.language import Language
+from spacy.language import Language, _count_pipeline_inter_dependencies
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
@@ -198,3 +198,19 @@ def test_pipe_labels(nlp):
     assert len(nlp.pipe_labels) == len(input_labels)
     for name, labels in nlp.pipe_labels.items():
         assert sorted(input_labels[name]) == sorted(labels)
+
+
+def test_pipe_inter_dependencies():
+    class Fancifier:
+        name = "fancifier"
+        assigns = ("doc._.fancy",)
+        requires = tuple()
+    
+    class FancyNeeder:
+        name = "needer"
+        assigns = tuple()
+        requires = ("doc._.fancy",)
+
+    pipeline = [("fancifier", Fancifier()), ("needer", FancyNeeder())]
+    counts = _count_pipeline_inter_dependencies(pipeline)
+    assert counts == [1, 0]