
Episode #163
Episode 163: From Guinness Price Pub Calls to Business Model Change: AI Agents in Practice with Matt Cortland
In this episode of Gaule’s Question Time, Andrew Gaule speaks with AI engineer Matt Cortland about the Guinness Index, a project that used an AI voice agent to call pubs and collect the cost of a pint of Guinness. Matt explains how the project worked, what the data showed and why voice AI opens up new possibilities for research, pricing and hard-to-reach information. Andrew and Matt also explore broader corporate use cases, including investment screening, software development, APIs, business model change and the need for human oversight. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Matt Cortland and the Guinness Index 01:00 How the AI voice agent collected Guinness pricing data 02:00 Scale, response rates and public reaction 04:30 Voice AI as a tool for research and local availability 06:30 AI for work that was previously too costly 08:30 Matt’s broader AI consulting and workflow projects 10:30 AI in investment screening and business model change 13:00 Context, APIs and market insight 15:00 Safety, bias and human oversight 18:00 How AI is changing software development 21:00 Why human expertise still matters 23:00 Anthropomorphising AI and closing reflections If you are leading AI strategy or implementation, identify one process where AI agents could create better data, reduce manual effort or change the economics of the work. Contact Andrew Gaule to discuss a practical pilot. More Podcasts on Gaule's Question Time on Apple, Spotify etc https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/gaules-question-time/id972450965 Videos on Purpose to Performance Channel https://www.youtube.com/@P2PfromAimava






