OpenAI said on September 30, 2026, it will train small-business advisors and host workshops through a partnership with America’s SBDC, the national network of small business development centers.
The pilot aims to reach at least 1,000 small businesses via in-person workshops, the company said in a blog post. The tie-up pairs OpenAI Academy’s training resources with SBDC’s local advisors, who already serve about one million entrepreneurs a year, addressing what the company described as a gap: small teams without dedicated specialists often struggle to begin using AI on their own.
OpenAI has been building a training program for small businesses since last November, when it ran hands-on AI events with DoorDash and SCORE in five U.S. cities. It later introduced a small-business ChatGPT program in July 2026 and role-based Academy courses for developers, leaders and educators in September, as Automatica reported. The SBDC collaboration adds a layer of local, in-person advising after workshops.
Under the plan, about 150 SBDC advisors will complete an OpenAI Academy trainer curriculum. Those advisors will then lead three-hour Academy Workshops at participating SBDC networks, where owners will test ChatGPT on real business tasks and draft a plan for using the tools. Ongoing one-on-one advising is included. OpenAI and America’s SBDC also intend to produce industry-specific guides for marketing, operations, manufacturing, exporting and government contracting.
Alongside the partnership, OpenAI published a self-commissioned report, “Small Businesses, Bigger Capabilities,” based on its own product usage data. The report states that in a single week, September 9 to 15, roughly 4 million employees at companies with fewer than 500 people used OpenAI tools. Nearly one in five of those users worked at firms with fewer than 10 employees. Agentic output tokens—units generated by tools such as ChatGPT Work and Codex—accounted for two-thirds of all small-business output tokens in August, up from one-third in April 2026, according to the report. The methodology and definitions for “agentic” interactions were not disclosed, and the figures were not independently audited. The company did not provide pricing for the training program or any associated tools.
The report also found that small-business users interacted with AI agents in finance and accounting, supply chain, legal and compliance, and marketing at shares at least three times larger than those of larger-business users. OpenAI highlighted two customer stories: restaurant owners Ted and Tami Taylor, who used ChatGPT Work to compare competitors’ menu prices and avoid uncompetitive increases, and education consultant Teri Moten, who booked a training session within 10 days of using ChatGPT Work for tailored outreach to school districts.
OpenAI said it will track which practices owners continue to use after the pilot and use the findings to refine future training. It also announced a customer webinar to discuss real-world use of ChatGPT Work.