OpenAI backs hands-on AI training for small businesses

OpenAI is partnering with America's SBDC, a US network of small business development centers, to expand hands-on AI training and local support for small businesses. Alongside the partnership, the company released a report on how small teams are already using AI in their day-to-day work.

The format matters. Help comes through local centers where an owner can bring a specific problem, rather than through generic advice. Small companies rarely lack access to the technology; they lack time and someone to show which process to start with. A report built on real usage gives owners benchmarks from practice rather than from vendor slides.

Pick the one process that eats the most time in your team — invoice reconciliation, customer replies, the weekly summary — and write it down step by step. A small team can start by simply asking questions in plain language: 1Cifer answers from 1C, CRM and bank data at once and prepares manager summaries from live numbers.