When Matt Cortland paid €7.80 for a pint of Guinness in a Dublin pub in March 2026, he couldn't shake the feeling he'd been overcharged. For many, the price of a pint is just a passing annoyance, but for Cortland, it sparked a mission. Why, he wondered, was there no clear record of what a pint of Guinness actually costs across Ireland? As it turned out, the nation's Central Statistics Office had stopped tracking the price of the country's beloved stout back in 2011, leaving a 14-year gap in official data. With price hikes and inflation making headlines, Cortland decided it was time to fill that void—using artificial intelligence.
Cortland, an American engineer with deep ties to Ireland, set out to create the most comprehensive pint price database the country had seen in over a decade. His tool of choice? An AI voice agent named Rachel, modeled after Rachel Duffy, the charismatic winner of the UK reality show The Traitors. Crafted with the help of ElevenLabs' voice generation platform and equipped with a warm Northern Irish accent, Rachel was designed to put even the most skeptical bartender at ease.
Over the course of St. Patrick’s Day weekend in 2026, Rachel dialed more than 3,000 pubs across all 32 counties of Ireland, asking a simple question: “How much is a pint of Guinness?” The effort cost Cortland just €200, but the results were invaluable. According to Tech.Eu and Fortune, over 2,000 pubs answered Rachel's calls, and more than 1,000 provided verified prices. This massive data collection effort paved the way for what Cortland dubbed the “Guinndex”—a living, breathing consumer price index for Guinness lovers everywhere.
The numbers Rachel collected were eye-opening. As of March 30, 2026, the average price of a pint of Guinness across Ireland was about €6.01, with the most common price being €5.50. In Dublin, prices soared even higher, averaging €6.75 per pint, with the notorious Temple Bar district charging as much as €10 at some establishments. On the other end of the spectrum, the cheapest pint was recorded at €3.00 in Glynn’s Bar in Galway—though Cortland suspects the bartender might have been having a bit of fun with Rachel’s digital curiosity.
For Cortland, the project was about more than just numbers. Before his foray into AI, he’d spent years in the hospitality industry, running pubs across Ireland, the UK, and the US, and even launching a chain of "wizard bars" with working magic wands. “I’m a former pub and bar owner, so I know what it’s like to be on the other end of customer pricing calls,” Cortland told Tech.Eu. “But I also know what it’s like to be on the consumer end and paying a kidney for a pint. I apologise to everyone I tortured over Paddy’s weekend. Rachel just wanted a wee drink.”
Designing Rachel to sound authentic was no small feat. As Cortland explained to BBC News NI, "We’re just finished watching The Traitors, she did such a spectacular job. She convinced the whole castle, she convinced me." The AI’s accent and friendly demeanor were key to getting bartenders to share their prices. Early versions of Rachel’s script included too much back-and-forth, which made bartenders suspicious. After some tweaking, Rachel simply asked the price, said thanks, and hung up.
Most publicans had no idea they were speaking to an AI. The transcripts reviewed by Fortune and Tech.Eu show that only a handful caught on. Some bartenders even offered a bit of banter. At Malzard’s Pub in Kilkenny, the bartender told Rachel, “They’re normally 6.20, but if you can’t afford one, we’ll buy you one. We’ll look after you.” At Doogies in Northern Ireland, the bartender joked, “Twenty-five pound. But if you’re coming in for a wee drink, I’ll give it to you for a fiver.”
Not every call was so smooth. At The Plough in Curraglass, Cork, the bartender refused to give the price over the phone, saying, “You’d have to call in and I’ll tell you.” When Rachel explained she couldn’t, the bartender replied, “Ah, well done. You’ll never know, though, will you?” At The Linen House in Lisburn, Rachel found herself trapped in a conversation with another automated receptionist, resulting in two AIs talking past each other in an endless loop. “Oh, dear,” Rachel said four times, but no pint price was ever discovered.
The Guinndex didn’t just satisfy curiosity—it had a tangible impact. According to Fortune, after the index went live, at least one pub owner lowered the price of a pint by €0.40 and updated the Guinndex himself. The platform, now available at guinndex.ai, is crowdsourced, allowing anyone to contribute new prices or flag inaccuracies. “We are now crowdsourcing prices from the public in order to keep the index alive,” Cortland told The Irish Independent. “It would be cool if people started using it to compare prices across the country. It could stabilise the price of a pint of Guinness, or even bring it down.”
For pub owners, the transparency was largely welcomed. Pat Hayes, owner of The Arch Bar in Thurles, told Tech.Eu, “It was a good laugh. I had no idea it wasn’t a real person. But look, knowing the price of a pint is important. People want to know what they’re paying before they walk in the door. If someone’s putting together an index of every pub in the country, fair play to them. It’s good for the customer and it keeps us all honest.” John Doogan, who runs Doogie’s Bar in Derrygonnelly, pointed to corporate suppliers like Diageo for recent price hikes, telling BBC News NI, “We’re sort of snookered here because Diageo (owner of Guinness) put the price up a few weeks ago.”
Despite the fun and occasional mishaps, Cortland’s project has a serious side. With inflation driving up prices and pub owners setting rates independently, the Guinndex gives consumers the transparency they need to make informed choices. “If you’re charging €11 for a pint of Guinness, that’s fair enough,” Cortland told Fortune. “But people should know that information.”
Looking ahead, Cortland hopes to expand the Guinndex concept to other products—perhaps tracking prescription drug prices in the US or even the cost of a slice of pizza in New York. For now, though, Rachel and the Guinndex have given Ireland’s beer lovers a powerful new tool for navigating the ever-changing landscape of pub prices—one phone call at a time.