He’s a high-tech hero!
A fed-up beer geek used an AI bot to create a “living index” of what local bars are charging for Guinness — a database that’s now credited for driving down prices across the Emerald Isle.
Startup founder Matt Cortland, 37, created an AI bot modeled after a UK reality TV show to poll 3,000 bars on their price tags after he shelled out €7.80, or roughly $8.93, for a single pint of Guinness at a Dublin pub in early March.
His shock eventually faded into a relentless curiosity. First, he checked Ireland’s Central Statistics Office, which he learned had stopped price tracking Guinness in 2011, reports said.
Guinness is the most popular drink of choice in Ireland and its headquarters are based in Dublin.
Creating a new price tracking index was a massive undertaking that Cortland knew he couldn’t accomplish alone so, he employed, or rather created, the perfect partner, according to the hoptimistic entrepreneur.
“I was like, ‘Well, can I just call every pub in Ireland and conversationally ask them with AI?’ I pulled the thread, and I just kept pulling the thread, and here we are,” Cortland told Fortune.
Cortland built Rachel, inspired by UK’s “The Traitors” winner Rachel Duffy, and dispatched the AI to call 3,000 pubs across the island nation. In each call, Rachel inquired about the price of a pint of Guinness.
Of the 3,000 calls, 2,052 were answered, and more than 1,000 told Rachel the price of their Guinness, as reported by TechEU.
Many of the well-meaning bartenders had no idea they were talking to a computer.
“The cost of a pint of Guinness? Twenty-five pounds. But if you’re coming in for a wee drink, I’ll give it to you for a fiver,” one bartender in Northern Ireland told Rachel, as reported by Fortune.
“Listen, they’re normally €6.20, but if you can’t afford one, we’ll buy you one. We’ll look after you,” another in Kilkenny, Ireland, assured.
Rachel logged its findings, which Cortland used to create the “Guinndex,” a “living, breathing” consumer price index for a pint of Guinness across Ireland.
Cortland told the outlet that pricey pints creeping over €7 have plummeted to €6 or lower since he published the tracker.
In one instance, he said a pub owner reportedly slashed the cost of his Guinness by €0.40 and then updated the entry on the Guinndex himself.
Cortland hopes to replicate the project with other popular products. He spitballed a few ideas, ranging from the cost of a slice of pizza in New York City to prescription drugs in the US.
He noted that his gripe isn’t about the costs themselves, but the lack of transparency.
“If you’re charging €11 for a pint of Guinness, that’s fair enough. But people should know that information,” he told the outlet.
