OpenAI is taking AI training to small businesses in person, because the login was never the hard part

On 30 September OpenAI and America's SBDC announced free, in-person AI workshops for more than 1,000 US small businesses. It's US-only, but the lesson travels well: training beats another subscription.

Most small businesses don't have an AI problem. They have a 'we signed up and then nobody had time to learn it' problem. On 30 September OpenAI announced a partnership with America's SBDC, the US network of small business development centres, to tackle exactly that with hands-on, in-person training.

Here's how it works. America's SBDC will recruit advisors from its network, and OpenAI Academy will train them to run local workshops. The pilot aims to reach more than 1,000 small businesses, rolling out in phases over the coming months. The workshops cover practical skills like streamlining daily operations and improving customer service. Advisors and business owners who complete a workshop get free access to ChatGPT Plus. The two organisations also plan to build playbooks and industry-specific guides so the training can spread beyond the first states. The SBDC network has 63 member organisations and nearly 1,000 local centres, so it's not a pop-up stall at a trade show.

This one is for US businesses, so nobody in Melbourne is getting a workshop invite. The interesting part is the admission behind it. The company selling the software has decided that a person in a room showing you how to use it is worth paying for. For a midsize business, that's the bit to copy. Most teams already pay for an AI tool or two. What they don't have is an hour where someone shows them how it fits their actual Tuesday.

My advice: before you buy another AI subscription, book one internal session. Pick a single job your team does every week, like quoting, chasing invoices or answering the same customer question, and work through it together with the tool you already pay for. Write down the prompt that worked. Then do it again next month with a different job. It's cheaper than a new tool and a lot less likely to become another unused login.

Tools are easy to buy. Habits take a bit of coaching. And if the people who make ChatGPT think you need a teacher, it's probably fine to admit you do too.