OpenAI has announced a partnership with America’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) to help small business owners integrate artificial intelligence into their daily operations. The initiative combines OpenAI’s training resources with the SBDC’s established network of trusted advisors to provide hands-on education for entrepreneurs.
What Happened
In the initial phase of the partnership, OpenAI plans to train approximately 150 SBDC advisors through its Community Trainer Program. The goal is to deliver hands-on workshops to SBDC networks across the United States, aiming to reach at least 1,000 small businesses through in-person training, with many more supported through one-on-one advising and shared resources.
The program includes a credentialing pathway for advisors focused on helping small businesses apply AI responsibly. Advisors will also undergo training to lead group sessions. Additionally, OpenAI and the SBDC will co-create practical guides covering topics such as marketing, operations, manufacturing, exporting, and government contracting, informed by insights from the workshops.
Alongside the partnership, OpenAI released a report titled "Small Businesses, Bigger Capabilities." The report states that during the week of September 9-15, approximately 4 million employees at companies with fewer than 500 people used OpenAI’s tools. It notes that nearly one in five of these users worked at firms with fewer than 10 employees.
The report also highlights a shift in usage patterns. According to OpenAI, agentic output tokens for products like ChatGPT Work and Codex made up two-thirds of all small business output tokens in August, up from one-third in April 2026. The data suggests small teams are increasingly relying on AI for finance, accounting, supply chain, legal, compliance, and marketing tasks, often areas where they lack dedicated specialists.
Why It Matters
This partnership addresses a common barrier for small business owners: identifying where to start with AI adoption. By leveraging the existing trust and reach of the SBDC network, which serves 1 million entrepreneurs annually, OpenAI aims to lower the learning curve for non-technical users. The initiative extends previous efforts, such as the Small Business AI Jams held last November and the ChatGPT for small business program introduced in July 2026.
For developers and the industry, the shift toward agentic workflows in small businesses signals a growing demand for tools that can automate complex, multi-step tasks rather than just generating text. The report’s findings on increased agentic token usage suggest that small firms are adopting AI not just for content creation, but for operational efficiency in critical areas like finance and supply chain management.
The Bottom Line
OpenAI’s collaboration with America’s SBDC represents a strategic effort to scale AI adoption among small businesses through trusted local advisors. By combining credentialing for advisors with practical, industry-specific guides and hands-on workshops, the partnership aims to provide owners with the confidence and skills to integrate AI into their core business functions.