OpenAI partners with America's SBDC on AI training

OpenAI has announced a partnership with America's SBDC, the national network of small business development centers that serves 1 million entrepreneurs each year. The aim is to help more small businesses use AI at work.

In the initial phase, which runs through OpenAI Academy's Community Trainer Program, OpenAI plans to train and credential around 150 SBDC advisors. The goal is to reach at least 1,000 small businesses through in-person training, plus more through one-on-one advising. Each participating network will host at least one three-hour, hands-on Academy Workshop built around using ChatGPT on real business tasks, and advisors will follow up with owners afterward. The two organizations will also produce practical guides and one industry-focused companion guide. Possible topics include marketing, operations, manufacturing, exporting, and government contracting.

OpenAI also released a report, Small Businesses, Bigger Capabilities, based on its own usage data. Key figures:

• Weekly users: About 4 million employees at companies with fewer than 500 people used OpenAI products during the week of September 9–15.
• Very small firms: Nearly one in five of those users worked at a business with fewer than 10 employees.
• Agentic share: In August, agentic output tokens from products such as ChatGPT Work and Codex made up two-thirds of small-business output tokens, up from one-third in April 2026.
• Task mix: In the sample, finance and accounting, supply chain, legal and compliance, and marketing each took at least three times as large a share of small-business users' interactions with AI agents as they did for users at larger businesses.

OpenAI did not disclose the pilot's funding, its timeline, or how many SBDC networks will take part. The program builds on OpenAI's Small Business AI Jams with DoorDash and SCORE last November and on its ChatGPT for small business program, launched in July 2026.