OpenAI Partners With America's SBDC to Train Small Business Advisors

Training advisors and reaching local businesses

America's SBDC serves 1 million entrepreneurs each year, according to OpenAI. The partnership is built around advisors who already work with owners in their communities. The stated goal is to reach at least 1,000 small businesses through in-person training, and many more through one-on-one advising and jointly developed resources.

The pilot has three parts:

• Training and credentialing advisors. America's SBDC plans to select advisors for an OpenAI Academy pathway focused on helping small businesses apply AI. OpenAI says advisors will learn to help owners choose a useful starting point, use AI responsibly, and assess whether it is helping their business. Advisors and staff will also prepare to lead group sessions through a separate facilitator pathway and small-business workshop module.
• Hands-on local workshops. OpenAI plans to host Academy Workshops with SBDC networks, with at least one at each participating network. The sessions follow OpenAI Academy's three-hour, hands-on format. Owners build and test ways to use ChatGPT on real business tasks and leave with a plan. SBDC advisors follow up afterward.
• Resources shaped by business needs. OpenAI and America's SBDC will create practical guides to putting AI to work, plus one companion guide on specific industries. Potential topics include marketing, operations, manufacturing, exporting, and government contracting.

What the new report says about small business use

Alongside the partnership, OpenAI released a report titled Small Businesses, Bigger Capabilities. It combines usage data with owners' experiences. According to the report, around 4 million small-firm employees worldwide used OpenAI's tools in one week, September 9-15. Approximately 4 million of them worked at companies with fewer than 500 people, and nearly one in five of those users worked at a business with fewer than 10 employees.

The report also points to a shift toward agentic use. In August, agentic output tokens for products like ChatGPT Work and Codex made up two-thirds of all small business output tokens, up from one-third in April 2026.

The kinds of work differ from larger firms. In the sample, finance and accounting, supply chain, legal and compliance, and marketing each accounted for at least three times as large a share of small-business users' interactions with AI agents as they did for larger-business users. OpenAI notes these are areas where a small team may lack a dedicated specialist.

Two owners are featured. Ted and Tami Taylor, who run three restaurants in New Mexico, used ChatGPT Work to compare competitors' menu prices before updating their own. The analysis helped them avoid price increases that would have made some items uncompetitive, and Ted says they would otherwise have skipped the comparison. Teri Moten used ChatGPT Work to research school districts in South Texas and prepare tailored outreach that she reviewed and sent. She reports booking a paid training session within ten days of starting that outreach.

Building on earlier small business efforts

OpenAI describes the SBDC partnership as an extension of earlier work. Last November, OpenAI Academy teamed up with DoorDash, SCORE, and local business organizations for Small Business AI Jams in five U.S. cities, offering hands-on help with marketing, customer communications, and everyday operations. The company's ChatGPT for small business program, introduced in July 2026, adds training and resources for owners.

OpenAI says it will follow up with owners throughout the pilot to learn what is helping, what they are still using, and where they need more support. Those findings are meant to shape the training and resources developed with America's SBDC.

For small business owners, the practical change is access to a trusted local advisor trained to help them find a starting point, rather than having to work it out alone. The source gives no timeline or list of participating networks, so the reach of the pilot beyond the stated targets remains to be seen.