LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, February 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Babel, an integrated B2B tech marketing and PR agency, has released its latest white paper, The Brave Benchmark. The report examines why B2B tech brands are receiving more leads from AI and explores the implications of this shift in buyer behaviour for the industry.
Research shows that 89% of B2B buyers now use generative AI as a primary source of information. Babel cautions that traditional safe marketing tactics, such as gating valuable insights behind forms, make brands invisible to the AI tools that 94% of buyers rely on to validate decisions.
Instead of analysing the market from a safe distance, Babel turned its own brand into a live laboratory. The agency conducted a structured audit across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity using a prompt suite designed to mimic the actual buying journey of a CMO—from broad discovery to late-stage due diligence.
“Safe is officially the most dangerous place you can be,” said Ash Lockett, Head of B2B Marketing at Babel. “We realised the brand we intended to build was not the one AI recognised. We were providing fragmented information and withholding our best insights. This report makes the business case for bravery: it means making your best thinking accessible and prioritising distribution over contact capture.”
Key findings from The Brave Benchmark:
– The Paywall Loophole & Hallucinations: When authoritative data is gated, AI systems often generate inaccurate or “Frankenstein” information. In one test, ChatGPT generated a hallucinated PR Week Top 150 table using 2015 data because the 2025 results were behind a paywall.
– The Power of Priming: Prior exposure to a brand significantly influences future AI recommendations. Even one interaction can prime a prospect’s AI, increasing the likelihood that the algorithm will recommend that brand later in the decision process.
– The Source Hierarchy: Different AI models trust different sources. Gemini derives 52.1% of its citations from brand-owned websites, while Perplexity favours niche trade media and recent news. ChatGPT relies heavily on consensus data, such as Wikipedia and structured industry listings.
– The Rule of Three: In B2B, buyers often have three vendors in mind before opening a browser. A successful Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) strategy ensures the AI validates your product as the most trustworthy of those three.
A Blueprint for Babel defines GEO as the process of optimising content for inclusion in AI-generated answers. The report concludes that brands should prioritise consistency across owned content, technical SEO, open directories, and third-party validation to succeed in this environment. validation.
“We have moved from a world of search, where the user does the work, to a world of answers, where the machine does the thinking,” added Lockett. “If you are not included in that answer, you are not just ranked lower; you are effectively erased from consideration.”
The full whitepaper, including Babel’s action plan for improving GEO performance, is available here.
END
About Babel
Babel is an agency for B2B tech brands seeking to accelerate growth. For 20 years, the agency has combined deep sector insight with integrated creative strategies to help clients manage risk and stand out in competitive markets. With Babel, it is safe to be brave.
Madeleine
Cotterell
madeleine.cotterell@babelpr.com
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability
for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this
article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
