A man used AI to call 3,000 Irish bartenders to track the cost of Guinness. Now pubs are lowering their prices to compete
An AI agent made 3,000 calls to track beer prices, forcing pubs to lower costs to compete.
Matt Cortland, founder of an AI startup, turned to artificial intelligence to solve a personal and national data gap: the price of a pint of Guinness in Ireland. After paying €7.80 for a stout in Dublin and discovering Ireland's Central Statistics Office had ceased tracking the popular beer's price in 2011, he built an AI agent named 'Rachel' using the ElevenLabs voice generation platform. The agent, given a Northern Irish accent as an homage to a reality TV star, autonomously made over 3,000 calls to pubs across the island, conversationally asking for the price of a pint.
Cortland's project, initially a personal curiosity, evolved into a significant public data collection effort. The AI-driven survey successfully gathered widespread price data, creating a new, transparent benchmark for consumers. According to reports, this newfound transparency has had a direct market impact, with some pubs now lowering their Guinness prices to stay competitive, demonstrating how accessible AI tools can be leveraged for large-scale, real-world data gathering and consumer advocacy.
- AI startup founder Matt Cortland built 'Rachel' using ElevenLabs' voice AI platform to track beer prices.
- The AI agent autonomously made over 3,000 calls to Irish pubs with a Northern Irish accent.
- The project created public price transparency, reportedly leading some pubs to lower prices to compete.
Why It Matters
Shows how consumer-grade AI can automate large-scale market research, creating transparency that directly influences pricing and competition.