Small businesses are built on ambition: a craft you’ve perfected, a skill to share, a better way to serve a community. But turning that ambition into a business also means finding customers, managing finances, and handling marketing, often with a small team. AI can extend a team’s capacity, but figuring out where to start takes time. A trusted advisor can make that first step easier.

Today, OpenAI is announcing a partnership with America’s SBDC—the national network of small business development centers serving 1 million entrepreneurs each year—to help more small businesses use AI at work. Through Open AI Academy’s Community Trainer Program, we plan to train around 150 Small Business Development Center advisors and bring hands-on workshops to SBDC networks across the country, with the goal of reaching at least 1,000 small businesses through in-person training.

Alongside this new partnership, we’re also releasing Small Businesses, Bigger Capabilities, a new report examining how owners are using AI. The report finds that in one recent week, around 4 million small-firm employees worldwide used Open AI’s tools. Through the SBDC partnership, we want to help even more owners build the skills and confidence to explore what AI could make possible for their businesses.