In this episode of the Back to Brave podcast, Babel's Head of B2B Marketing, Ash Lockett is joined by Andrew White, CEO and co-founder of Sapio Research, to unpack Babel's newly released report, The Mental Av-AI-lability Index. Together, they explore the critical intersection between human brand recall and algorithmic recommendations within the B2B tech sector. The episode dives into the methodology behind the research, revealing how AI is rapidly shifting the B2B buying journey (notably that 32% of buyers who select a net-new vendor now use AI tools to find them - officially outpacing traditional search engines and analyst reports). Ash and Andrew also break down the four new commercial realities, identified in the report, into quadrants (Titans, Algorithmic Disruptors, Sleeping Giants, and The Untapped) and share actionable best practices for conducting impactful, unique brand and thought-leadership research.

Welcome to Babel’s Back to Brave podcast. In this episode, host Ash Lockett sits down with Alice Widger (the Kate Bush of SEO) to decode the most talked-about acronym in marketing right now: GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation).Together, they cut through the industry hype and break down the findings from Babel's recent Brave AI Audit (The Brave Benchmark). Alice explains why trying to 'hack' LLMs is a dangerous game, why your gated PDFs are hurting your brand and why showing up in AI search ultimately comes down to foundational SEO and generosity of spirit.

Jenny Mowat, CEO of Babel, launches Babel’s 2026 Bravery series on the Digital Communicators Podcast, focused on what “bravery choices” mean for B2B brands. She is joined by Sophie Hodgson, Communications Director at Cisco, who discusses how bravery can range from simply getting out of bed to voicing the “elephant in the room” in meetings, emphasising “progress, not perfection.” Sophie shares a personal example of posting “my name is Sophie, and I have ambitions,” and reflects on how being a “yes person” can backfire when issues arise later. She outlines her career path from studying public relations at Bournemouth University, working in agencies, moving into tech PR, then going in-house at Cloudera during the pandemic, which helped her understand internal approval processes, before joining Cisco. Sophie explains the importance and difficulty of saying no as a people pleaser, reframing no as the start of a new conversation, and highlights guidance from coach Alison O’Leary on not over-validating a refusal. She recounts advice from Susan Space at Cloudera about only apologising when necessary, and references Mel Robbins’ “Let Them” framework as a tool for letting go of draining pressures. On managing demands, she describes protecting her peace by delaying checking messages in the morning, inspired by CEO Charles Sweeney’s approach of aligning messages to daily goals, and notes the constant expectation of instant replies. On AI, Sophie argues increased automation will make communications “more human,” citing Petri (SVP and GM for Splunk EMEA), and says audiences increasingly value authentic, less-produced content.  She describes AI as useful for research, summarising documents, identifying trends, and journalist targeting, while warning about bias, limitations, fact-checking, and confidentiality; she notes Cisco provides AI courses to build awareness. Sophie also explains how global comms should keep a consistent core message while adapting tone and storytelling to local contexts and political environments. Her advice for ambitious communicators includes being curious, reading the news, asking questions, shadowing other functions, trusting your gut, and “talking truth to power,” echoing Cisco’s CCO Steve’s message to be truth tellers. Back2Brave is the podcast from Babel: the agency for B2B tech brands ready to move faster. We combine 20 years of deep sector insight with integrated creative strategies to help clients navigate risk and standout in crowded markets. With Babel, it’s safe to be brave. Visit us at www.babelpr.com.

Jenny from Babel hosts the Back2Brave Podcast with guest Emily Wearmouth, Director of Content and Communications at cybersecurity company Netskope and host of the Security Visionaries podcast. Emily describes entering tech PR accidentally, how her work evolved from press-centric PR into broader content ownership, and why PR is often treated as an “awkward child” within integrated marketing because it cannot be as self-promotional. They discuss separating the corporate “story” from the act of “storytelling” to diagnose challenges, arguing that splitting PR and marketing narratives creates inconsistent messaging for buyers. Emily shares examples at Netskope, including the global “Bringing Balance” campaign on how CISOs balance risk and innovation and the follow-on “Crucial Conversations” campaign focused on CIO engagement with CEOs, emphasizing internal adoption by proactively involving teams across the organization, expanding channels (web, social, events, podcasts, press, paid media), and improving collaboration year over year. They cover practical execution issues such as shifting timelines due to Netskope’s IPO quiet period, the role of paid versus earned media, and measuring success using business-recognized metrics like share of voice and generating net-new C-level contacts in specific geographies while tracking content touchpoints in pipeline. Emily highlights cultural and operational tips—being collaborative, crediting others, and using shared project tools like Asana—and argues that long-term separation of sales, marketing, PR, and digital reduces economies of scale and confuses customers. Looking ahead, they predict continued strategic alignment around a simplified corporate narrative, with specialists still owning channels or audiences, and conclude that consistency across all channels requires building a story that works for every function and involving stakeholders early so they become storytellers.

From AI and data breaches to business resilience, there's a lot of noise in the cybersecurity news cycle. Every cybersecurity provider wants to be heard, and every threat feels critical. That's a challenge for any B2B cybersecurity vendor looking for exposure. What do journalists actually want to hear from you? On the latest episode of the Digital Communicators Podcast, prolific UK cybersecurity journalist and former analyst Dan Raywood shares his insights with Babel PR based on his two decades of experience in covering the beat.

You're a tech vendor. A story just broke that you could provide valuable insight on. But how do you hijack the news? Tune into the conversation between Jennifer Mowat, CEO at Babel PR, and Susie Evershed, Corporate Communications EMEA at Secureworks, as they dig into questions like: - What do journalists want to hear? - What would add value to the conversation? - Is it always about being the first to the punch? - What do you if your comment doesn't get picked up?

Babel Senior Director Paul Campbell speaks with Nadine Hawkins, Editor at Capacity Media about the upcoming telecoms event in London - Capacity Europe.

Babel director Simon Coughlin speaks with the Philip Benton, Principal Fintech Analyst at Omdia.

Babel associate director Declan Bradshaw speaks with the editor of TechInformed, James Pearce.

Babel director Simon Coughlin speaks with the CEO of Fintech Week London, Raf de Kimpe, ahead of the 2024 event (10-14 June).