OpenAI SBDC workshops are a new pilot that trains local small-business advisors to teach owners how to use ChatGPT on their own work. The partnership brings together OpenAI and America’s SBDC, the national network of Small Business Development Centers serving 1 million entrepreneurs each year, to train local advisors and run hands-on sessions for owners.
If you already open ChatGPT when a marketing task piles up, the partnership puts three things within reach: a three-hour workshop, a local advisor who follows up afterward, and practical guides the two organizations are still writing.
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What OpenAI and America’s SBDC Announced
In the initial phase, the pilot plans to train around 150 Small Business Development Center advisors through OpenAI Academy’s Community Trainer Program, bring hands-on workshops to SBDC networks across the United States, and reach at least 1,000 small businesses through in-person training, plus more owners through one-on-one advising and resources the two organizations develop together.
America’s SBDC will select advisors for an Academy training and credentialing pathway focused on helping small businesses apply AI. Advisors are meant to help owners choose a useful starting point, use AI responsibly, and assess whether it is helping. A separate facilitator pathway is meant to prepare advisors and staff to lead group sessions.
OpenAI SBDC Workshops in Five Parts
| Piece | Pilot description | What that does not tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Advisors trained | Around 150 SBDC advisors | Which states, or when the first class finishes |
| In-person reach | At least 1,000 small businesses | A date, a waitlist, or how owners apply |
| Workshop shape | Three hours, hands-on, ChatGPT on real tasks, at least one session per participating network | The cities, or whether your local center is in the pilot |
| After the session | SBDC advisors follow up | How many hours of follow-up, or for how long |
| Guides | Practical guides plus one industry companion, with possible topics including marketing | Whether any guide is published today |
Every row describes a pilot that is starting, not a completed program. Dates and locations will come from the participating centers.
Tell Us the Task That Eats Your Week
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What Happens in a Workshop
The sessions are modelled on OpenAI Academy’s three-hour format. Owners build and test ways to use ChatGPT on real business tasks, leave with a plan, and get follow-up from an SBDC advisor. It is a hands-on training class with an advisor behind it.
A three-hour session that ends with a plan pays off when you bring one real task and keep a person reviewing what ChatGPT produces before a customer sees it.
Three Parts of the OpenAI SBDC Workshops Offer
- Advisors trained through OpenAI Academy
- Local three-hour workshops on real tasks
- Guides written after the pilot learns
Earlier work included Small Business AI Jams last November with DoorDash, SCORE and local groups in five U.S. cities, and a ChatGPT for small business program introduced in July 2026. Those were separate programs; the SBDC pilot is the new one.
What the Small-Business Report Measured
Alongside the partnership, OpenAI released a report titled Small Businesses, Bigger Capabilities. In the week of 9 to 15 September, around 4 million small-firm employees worldwide used OpenAI’s tools at companies with fewer than 500 people, with nearly one in five of those users at a business with fewer than 10 employees.
Report Figures
| Measure | Reported figure |
|---|---|
| Users in one September week | Around 4 million employees at firms under 500 people |
| Share at firms under 10 people | Nearly one in five of those users |
| Agentic output tokens, August | Two-thirds of small-business output tokens, up from one-third in April 2026 |
| Work types vs larger firms | Finance, supply chain, legal and compliance, and marketing each at least three times the share of agent interactions |
Each figure counts OpenAI users worldwide, so it shows who already uses the tools and how, with no measure of what that use earned in revenue, leads or hours saved.
The report names Ted and Tami Taylor, who run three restaurants in New Mexico; they used ChatGPT Work to compare competitors’ menu prices before changing their own, and would otherwise have skipped the comparison.
What This Changes for a Marketing Owner Who Already Uses ChatGPT
Small-business users already put a larger share of agent work into marketing than larger-business users do. If that describes you, a local workshop is a good place to test one marketing task with an advisor who already works with businesses in your area.
A Working Order for the Workshop
- Pick one marketing task you already do by hand
- Bring that task to the three-hour session
- Keep a human on every customer-facing line
- Use the advisor follow-up on what still fails
For where automation belongs in a marketing operation, our guide to building the system before buying the tool sets out the gates.
What to Do This Week
Find your local Small Business Development Center through America’s SBDC, then watch its events calendar for workshop dates and join its email list so the announcement reaches you. Each participating network will hold at least one session.
While you wait, try one task with ChatGPT this week. Paste in your last ten customer emails or reviews, with names removed, and ask it to list the questions customers keep asking. Turn the top three into a short FAQ for your website, check every answer yourself before it goes live, and bring that FAQ to the workshop as your one real task.
Want one marketing workflow set up with a human gate on the output? Tell us the one workflow you want to hand over, and we will show you how it would run for your business. Book a strategy call.
Sources
- OpenAI, “Helping Small Businesses Put AI to Work”, 30 September 2026.
- America’s SBDC, accessed 1 October 2026.