The next step for Hawaiʻi nonprofits? AI agents, say local entrepreneurs

As Hawaii Tech Week takes place in Honolulu, HPR highlights how tech impacts our lives by speaking with two local tech entrepreneurs who sold their startup companies to give back.

Rich Matsui and Brent Akamine are the forces behind a free AI workshop designed to help non-profit organizations help Hawaiʻi.

“When we look at the just the needs out there in the community, especially in the wake of all these storms that we're all handling, all the nonprofit communities that we have in Hawaiʻi are really the front lines in how we as Hawaii address these issues,” Matsui explained.

“However, these nonprofits are also themselves buried under not just tremendous paperwork, but having a tremendously difficult time, you know, securing the funding that they've always wanted and needed in order to fulfill their mission.”

The aim of their workshop, he explained, was to help non-profit organizations develop artificial intelligence tools to facilitate their day-to-day duties.

“There's so many things you can do once you understand how to build these AI agents, and so like our hope is to take that first step with them all,” Matsui said.

Their next workshop will be hosted at the Entrepreneurs Sandbox event in Kakaʻako on Sept. 23. More information can be found here. 

This story aired on The Conversation on Sept. 2, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.