AEO Advances Responsible AI for Small Business Support Through New Prompt Engineering Playbook

AEO Advances Responsible AI for Small Business Support Through New Prompt Engineering Playbook 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C. — January 14, 2026 — The Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO), with support from PayPal, is developing an AI-enhanced Business Health Assessment (BHA): a responsible, coach-led innovation designed to support and strengthen trust-based, person-to-person coaching relationships across the small business support ecosystem. This initiative focuses on using prompt engineering and testing with coaches to ensure that AI-generated insights are used as a decision-support tool within coaching engagements, helping advisors deliver guidance that is culturally relevant, context-aware, and bias-mitigated. 

The BHA is AEO’s flagship diagnostic tool, used by more than 20 organizations to support more than 2,500 entrepreneurs. AEO’s fieldwork and national pilot with business support organizations surfaced an opportunity: generative AI could help coaches quickly interpret assessment results and offer more personalized guidance—but only if prompts are intentionally designed to avoid biased, generic, or inappropriate recommendations. 

Through this project, AEO will work with a cohort of experienced business coaches to co-create a Prompt Playbook: a tested library of culturally responsive AI prompts that translate BHA data into conversational, actionable guidance for entrepreneurs. Beginning with prompt engineering—and grounding all guidance in the realities of underserved entrepreneurs—we aim to set a national standard for equity-centered, trustworthy AI in business advising. 

With support from PayPal, AEO will co-design a comprehensive Prompt Engineering Playbook that: 

  • Translates the BHA into structured prompt families 
  • Ensures prompts reflect cultural nuance and the lived experiences of underserved entrepreneurs 
  • Tests prompts with business coaches to identify risks, bias, and opportunities for improvement 
  • Builds responsible-use guardrails for integrating AI into technical assistance 

“AI’s role in small business support must be grounded in equity and trust,” said Natalie Madeira Cofield, President & CEO of AEO. “With PayPal’s support, we are ensuring that AI is used responsibly to support the coaching process while protecting entrepreneurs from biased or irrelevant advice.” 

 AEO is recruiting business coaches and technical assistance  providers to participate in a national cohort that will test prompts, refine guidance, and contribute insights to a public AI for Entrepreneurial Coaching brief.  

We invite business support organizations, CDFIs, coaches, and ecosystem partners to express interest in receiving updates, participating in prompt testing and advisory conversations and learning more about the cohort opportunity. 

Help shape equitable, culturally relevant AI for small business support. 

 Share your interest here:  https://forms.office.com/r/LDJGN9RjTE  

Additional information about the program design—such as structured testing sessions—will be shared early this year.