Sarah Spence: Human curiosity is the ultimate content advantage
Everyone’s chasing speed in content right now: faster production, bigger volumes, AI-powered output. But as Sarah Spence, Founder and CEO of strategic content marketing agency Content Rebels argues, more isn’t better… it’s just more. In this piece, Spence makes the case for curiosity over scale, showing how human insight and original research drove a global award-winning B2B campaign for Business Events Sydney, and why AI should amplify creativity, not replace it.
Everyone’s obsessed with speed right now.
Faster content, bigger volumes, more output. AI tools promise it all… and deliver, in their way. But here’s the thing: more isn’t better. It’s just… more.
I’ve been in content marketing long enough to see multiple gold rushes. First, it was “publish daily blogs.” Then “SEO is everything.” Now it’s “AI can do it all.” And while I’m no AI sceptic… my team at Content Rebels has now embedded AI in almost every process and task… I’ve learned this: speed without substance is the quickest way to blend into the noise.
What cuts through isn’t more. It’s better. And better comes from human curiosity.
Why curiosity beats content at scale
Curiosity is what makes you ask the extra question in an interview that unlocks a game-changing quote. It’s what drives you to read that obscure industry report that no one else bothered to. It’s what connects dots between disciplines that AI wouldn’t think to link.
Generative AI can summarise. It can remix. It can even simulate a human tone. But it can’t have a conversation over coffee and notice the sparkle in someone’s eye when they talk about their life’s work. It can’t build trust in a way that makes people open up and share their best stories. And those stories are the heartbeat of the kind of content that moves people (and… gets better, faster results too!).
How curiosity turned a few eBooks into a global award-winning campaign
A few years ago, Business Events Sydney (BESydney) came to us with a challenge. They didn’t just want to market Sydney as a pretty backdrop for conferences. They wanted the world to see it as a place where business, innovation and purpose collide.
The brief wasn’t to churn out content. It was to build a movement.
We built the “Change Starts Here” B2B Thought Leadership eBook Content Ecosystem campaign around five sectors where Sydney leads globally… from quantum science to aerospace. Over two years, we interviewed more than 50 experts, including professors, government scientists, startup founders, and industry leaders. We dug into research, pulled statistics, and crafted long-form eBooks that became the centrepiece of industry-specific content ecosystems.
Every quote, every data point, every chapter structure was intentional. We paired the eBooks with companion SEO articles and landing pages, creating an ecosystem that worked for both humans and algorithms.
The results? 3.5 million people reached, 100+ high-value leads through gated downloads and website traffic up 43%.
That campaign worked because it was built on curiosity. On its own, AI could never have replaced the real conversations, the depth of research, or the human judgment in how we told those stories.
Where AI belongs in the process
Now, I’m not saying AI doesn’t have a seat at the table. At Content Rebels, it’s not just in the room… it’s a core part of the creative team.
We’ve built processes that blend human-led strategy, research and storytelling with AI-assisted production so we can create genuinely brilliant, insightful and original content in around 40% of the time it used to take. That means more space for curiosity – think deep thinking, expert interviews and clever angles that make our work stand out… without sacrificing quality for speed.
And yes, before you ask… this article (packed with original insights) was written by me, with AI at my side, in just 45 minutes.
But here’s the catch… AI only works this well when it’s fed with something worth amplifying. The magic still comes from the human side: deciding which stories are worth telling, asking the questions AI wouldn’t think to ask, and spotting the emotional hook that makes someone lean in.
Used this way, AI isn’t replacing creativity. It’s giving it a turbo boost.
The risk of outsourcing curiosity
Here’s the risk I see right now: brands are so focused on scaling content production with AI that they’re cutting out the very thing that gives their content an edge … human-led discovery.
If you’re only rehashing what’s already online, you’re building your house on someone else’s land. AI models learn from what already exists. If you’re not adding anything new, you’re just making it easier for them to generate an answer without you.
The brands winning in this new landscape are the ones creating net-new thinking. They’re feeding the models with their own, original research, their own case studies, their own original insights. That’s what gets you cited, whether it’s in a Google AI Overview or a ChatGPT conversation.
How to keep curiosity at the core
If you want your content to cut through… and keep cutting through… here’s what I recommend:
- 1. Prioritise original inputs
Interview people. Run surveys. Commission research. Layer your perspective over data. - 2. Use AI as an amplifier, not an author
Let it help you scale distribution, not dictate direction. - 3. Optimise for humans first, algorithms second
That’s how you future-proof your content in a shifting search environment. - 4. Track your AI visibility
Just like SEO, GEO is measurable. Audit where you’re showing up in AI answers and work to improve that share with original, curiosity-fueled content.
The future belongs to the curious
The “Change Starts Here” campaign worked because it started with people, not pixels. The same will be true for this era of content marketing (perhaps it’s our 12th too?! IYKYK).
AI will keep getting better. Search will keep shifting. But curiosity? That’s timeless. It’s the one thing no machine can fake… and the one thing that will keep your brand’s content from sinking into the noise..
So yes, use AI. Optimise for it. But never outsource the questions only you can ask. That’s where the breakthroughs live.
Want to leave a comment? Share your thoughts in the comments box below, making sure to include your full name and email address.