UnTangled with Dirk Steuernagel – The AI Agents Are Here!

AI Agents Are Here. Is Your Nonprofit Ready for Them?

Every week on UnTangled, I have a conversation that makes me think a little differently about what is actually possible for mission-driven organizations. This week did not disappoint.

I sat down with Dirk Steuernagel from DTG (Digital Transformation Group) up in Vancouver, and we talked about AI agents. Not the hype version. The real, live, show-me-on-screen version. And Dirk showed us. On screen. In multiple languages. More on that in a minute.

And if these agents sound cool and you want to try one at your nonprofit, Dirk has offered to build three free agents for nonprofits that come through UnTangled – so get in touch as soon as possible at jen@fireflypartners.com.

Now, back to why you should be excited about this.

Not the AI Agent You Are Probably Thinking Of

These days, when most people hear “AI agent” they picture something working quietly in the background. An automated workflow. A tool that triggers actions based on rules you set. Useful, sure, but typically it means something is hidden from the user, doing work you can’t see.

That is not what we are talking about here.

What Dirk builds are interactive, humanized guides that live right on your website and actually talk with your visitors. Not in a creepy robot way, but in a genuinely helpful, knowledgeable way. You have probably seen the little chat widgets that have been popping up on websites for years — the ones where you type a question, get a semi-relevant canned response, and then spend the next five minutes digging through an FAQ page anyway because it ran out of answers at question two. Those are fine. These are not those.

These agents understand context. They hold a real conversation. They can answer follow-up questions. They know your mission, your programs, your eligibility requirements, and your campaigns. And when someone is ready to take action, they do not just point them somewhere else. They help them get there.

The Use Cases Are Bigger Than You Think

We walked through a live demo using Greenpeace as an example (not their client, just a handy illustration), and I watched an agent field questions about ocean plastic, pivot to mission background when asked, and then gently guide the conversation toward donating. It was kind of amazing.

But fundraising is just one lane. Dirk showed another agent built for a STEM scholarship organization, helping high schoolers understand if they qualify and how to apply. And the frame he offered stuck with me: if any part of your work involves getting someone to fill out or submit information — a grant application, a volunteer signup, an event registration, a program intake form — you have a use case for an agent.

And here is the part that really got me. The agent does not just talk. It acts. When someone is ready to donate, it can open a pre-filled donation form. When someone is working through an application, it can help them complete it in real time. It is not pointing your visitor at a page and wishing them luck. It is walking them through the door.

Available at 11 pm on a Sunday. And in 75 Languages.

This is the part that made me want to stand up and clap. Dirk walked us through switching the agent mid-conversation from English to Spanish to German without missing a beat. Seventy-five languages total.

For nonprofits serving communities where English is not the primary language, or where parents need to understand and consent to what their kids are signing up for, this is not a nice-to-have. It is an access and equity issue. And it is one these tools can actually solve right now.

And then there is the 24/7 piece. Dirk shared a story about a grantmaking organization that had to push back a deadline because a flood of applicant questions came in over the weekend, and no one was available to answer them. That is a real, painful, very fixable problem. Your visitors are not only on your site during business hours. They are there late at night, on weekends, right before a deadline, right when they finally have a free moment to do the thing they have been meaning to do. An agent meets them there.

It Is Also a Pressure Valve for Your Team

Here is the angle that does not get enough airtime. This is not only about the visitor experience. It is about what happens on the other side of the desk.

Staff capacity in the nonprofit sector is chronically stretched. Every question that trickles in through a contact form, every email asking whether someone qualifies for a program, every last-minute deadline scramble — that is time your team is spending on things an agent could handle. Not to replace the relationship. Not to remove the human from work that actually requires one. But to protect that human energy for the things that do.

Proactive. Multilingual. Always on. That is a real tool, not a toy.

How Hard Is It to Set Up?

Dirk was refreshingly honest here. It is not magic, and it is not instant, but it is also not as complicated as it sounds. You define the agent’s persona, build out its knowledge base, set the guardrails (no medical advice, no legal advice – yes, this matters and yes, you can control it), and then test. Expect two to four weeks before going live. After that, it drops onto any webpage with a simple embed. And it is not set-it-and-forget-it – you keep training it as you launch new campaigns or discover questions it did not know how to handle the first time around.

One More Thing Before You Go

Remember that offer I mentioned at the top? In case you got so excited about agents that you forgot – Dirk has offered to build three free agents for nonprofits that come through UnTangled. If you love it and want to keep it live, you can use it for free for two years. Reach out to me directly at jen@fireflypartners.com, and I will get you connected with Dirk. First come, first served.

Watch the full episode. Dirk did a live screen share mid-conversation that is genuinely worth seeing. The multilingual moment alone is worth four minutes of your day.