OpenAI has launched a coordinated AI skills initiative across Australia, partnering with CommBank, Coles, and Wesfarmers to deliver training to more than 1.2 million Australian workers and small businesses.
The initiative operates through OpenAI Academy, a platform designed to build foundational AI literacy across the workforce. CommBank is using it to offer training access to 1 million of its small business customers. Coles and Wesfarmers have each built tailored programs for their employees, covering frontline and corporate roles. The national rollout of courses is underway in 2026.
OpenAI has also announced a partnership with NEXTDC to develop a hyperscale AI campus and GPU supercluster in Sydney, and a startup program providing up to USD $15,000 in API credits for Australian founders. But the workforce training component is the part that deserves the most attention from Australian business owners.
Two of Australia's largest employers are not waiting for AI adoption to happen around them. They are actively preparing their workforces for it. Most businesses still treat AI as a technology question. The companies moving ahead are treating it as a people question. That distinction matters more than any specific tool they choose.
The practical question for any business watching this is not whether Coles or CommBank's model is right for them. It is whether their own team has been given any preparation at all. Awareness is not training. Buying a tool is not readiness. A workforce that understands what AI does, what it does not do, and how to work alongside it will outperform one that was handed a subscription and left to figure it out.
The technology is available to everyone. The preparation is not.
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