💰 AI Helped Make Beer Cheaper

Matt Cortland, a startup founder, paid €7.80 for a pint of Guinness at a Dublin pub and started wondering: how much does it cost in the rest of Ireland? Turns out, the authorities haven't tracked that figure since 2011.

So Cortland created Rachel, a voice AI agent powered by ElevenLabs with a realistic Northern Irish accent. Rachel called over 2,000 pubs, asking bartenders for the price of a pint. Most bartenders didn't realize they were talking to AI—they were friendly, and some even offered Rachel personal discounts.

🔍 Cortland fed the collected data into Claude and launched Guinndex—a live price index for a pint of Guinness across Ireland. No dramatic shifts yet, but the process is underway: one pub owner has already lowered the price by €0.40 and updated the data on the platform.

"If you're charging €11 for a pint of Guinness, fine. But people deserve to know," Cortland says.

💡 Now Cortland wants to replicate the success. Next up: a price index for prescription drugs in the US, and even a slice of pizza in New York.

Would you use AI to check prices?

❤️ — Yes, sounds handy
🤔 — No, it won't fix the prices

@hiaimediaen