AI-powered voice system inspired by a reality TV star surveys Guinness prices at 3,000 pubs across Ireland

An American engineer created an artificial intelligence system with a local Northern Irish accent to call thousands of pubs. The project aimed to survey and map in detail the prices of the stout beer Guinness. Over the Patrick's Day weekend in 2026, thousands of venues across 32 Irish counties received unexpected phone calls. On the other end was a friendly voice with a Northern Irish accent named Rachel. Her questions were direct: how much is a pint of Guinness? Yet busy bartenders did not realize they were speaking with an AI agent. The American engineer Matt Cortland used an AI voice named Rachel to call pubs across Ireland to survey the price of a pint of Guinness. This bold initiative is the brainchild of Cortland, an American tech entrepreneur passionately aligned with pub culture. A former scholar of the US-Ireland alliance and holder of a master's degree from TU Dublin, Cortland brings deep hospitality industry experience from managing pub chains in the UK, the US, and Ireland. Frustration with prices as high as €7.80 for a Guinness propelled him to build Guinndex — the most comprehensive online price data platform for this beer in more than a decade. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) stopped tracking this index in 2011, and in fourteen years beer prices rose by around 48%, leaving consumers without a comprehensive price reference. The goal of Guinndex is to create an online data platform that fills the information gap about beer prices that has remained untracked for fourteen years since the CSO stopped monitoring. To persuade pub owners to provide data, Cortland recognized that a lifelike robotic voice would be rejected. Drawing inspiration from Rachel Duffy — the charismatic winner of the reality show The Traitors — he designed a calling system using the ElevenLabs platform. The system is routed through Twilio with a real domestic SIM and uses the Google Maps API to scan thousands of business addresses that publicly display phone numbers. The total cost for the weekend’s data-collection campaign was a mere €200, with the data gathering and transcription stage handled by Claude AI. In practice, the system operated smoothly and yielded many entertaining dialogues with pub owners that went largely unnoticed as machine-produced. At Doogies in Northern Ireland, the bartender joked with a price of £25 before settling on £5 for a small pint. At McIntyre's in Donegal, staff pressed Rachel for her identity and origin. Even when calling the Premier Inn in Lisburn, Rachel encountered an endless loop with another automated assistant. Despite these hiccups, almost no bartender realized they were talking to a machine. When the campaign concluded, more than 1,000 price points were verified, painting a dynamic cost-of-living map. Guinndex data indicate the national average price of a pint of Guinness is €5.95. Dublin leads with an average of €6.75, peaking at €10 in Temple Bar. Rural areas like Laois report an average of €5.38. The survey also uncovered 12 hidden gems where customers can enjoy a pint for €5 or less. Notably, no Dublin pub ranked among the 46 venues with an absolute Google rating. Rachel the AI was configured with a warm Northern Irish accent, enabling low-cost calls and producing many engaging conversations with pub owners without revealing the machine behind the voice. Many venue owners expressed positive views about the project. Pat Hayes, owner of The Arch Bar in Thurles, described it to Tech.Eu as a fun and fair idea that helps bring market transparency. Similarly, John Doogan of Doogie's Bar in Derrygonnelly praised the consumer-benefit angle and noted that major drink producers like Diageo are primary drivers of price increases. According to Cortland in The Irish Independent, the project is evolving into a community-driven platform. Beer enthusiasts can now update prices on guinndex.ai. The founder hopes the system will sustain transparency and empower consumers to help stabilize prices for this iconic beverage in the near future. Tax Authority has issued a new notice. By Đức Khương