diff --git a/.github/workflows/openai.yml b/.github/workflows/openai.yml
index eef8e4ce6fb..1e0ecca7d2a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/openai.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/openai.yml
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ jobs:
           OAI_CONFIG_LIST: ${{ secrets.OAI_CONFIG_LIST }}
         run: |
           pip install nbconvert nbformat ipykernel
+          coverage run -a -m pytest test/test_with_openai.py
           coverage run -a -m pytest test/test_notebook.py
           coverage xml
           cat "$(pwd)/test/executed_openai_notebook_output.txt"
diff --git a/autogen/agentchat/conversable_agent.py b/autogen/agentchat/conversable_agent.py
index cc1b5e22407..ce3169e17f3 100644
--- a/autogen/agentchat/conversable_agent.py
+++ b/autogen/agentchat/conversable_agent.py
@@ -259,6 +259,7 @@ def _append_oai_message(self, message: Union[Dict, str], role, conversation_id:
         If the message received is a string, it will be put in the "content" field of the new dictionary.
         If the message received is a dictionary but does not have any of the two fields "content" or "function_call",
             this message is not a valid ChatCompletion message.
+        If only "function_call" is provided, "content" will be set to None if not provided, and the role of the message will be forced "assistant".
 
         Args:
             message (dict or str): message to be appended to the ChatCompletion conversation.
@@ -271,10 +272,15 @@ def _append_oai_message(self, message: Union[Dict, str], role, conversation_id:
         message = self._message_to_dict(message)
         # create oai message to be appended to the oai conversation that can be passed to oai directly.
         oai_message = {k: message[k] for k in ("content", "function_call", "name", "context") if k in message}
-        if "content" not in oai_message and "function_call" not in oai_message:
-            return False
+        if "content" not in oai_message:
+            if "function_call" in oai_message:
+                oai_message["content"] = None  # if only function_call is provided, content will be set to None.
+            else:
+                return False
 
         oai_message["role"] = "function" if message.get("role") == "function" else role
+        if "function_call" in oai_message:
+            oai_message["role"] = "assistant"  # only messages with role 'assistant' can have a function call.
         self._oai_messages[conversation_id].append(oai_message)
         return True
 
@@ -289,8 +295,8 @@ def send(
 
         Args:
             message (dict or str): message to be sent.
-                The message could contain the following fields (either content or function_call must be provided):
-                - content (str): the content of the message.
+                The message could contain the following fields:
+                - content (str): Required, the content of the message. (Can be None)
                 - function_call (str): the name of the function to be called.
                 - name (str): the name of the function to be called.
                 - role (str): the role of the message, any role that is not "function"
@@ -338,8 +344,8 @@ async def a_send(
 
         Args:
             message (dict or str): message to be sent.
-                The message could contain the following fields (either content or function_call must be provided):
-                - content (str): the content of the message.
+                The message could contain the following fields:
+                - content (str): Required, the content of the message. (Can be None)
                 - function_call (str): the name of the function to be called.
                 - name (str): the name of the function to be called.
                 - role (str): the role of the message, any role that is not "function"
diff --git a/test/test_with_openai.py b/test/test_with_openai.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ed63324be6a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/test_with_openai.py
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+import autogen
+import pytest
+import sys
+
+try:
+    import openai
+
+    skip = False
+except ImportError:
+    skip = True
+
+
+@pytest.mark.skipif(
+    skip or not sys.version.startswith("3.10"),
+    reason="do not run if openai is not installed or py!=3.10",
+)
+def test_function_call_groupchat():
+    import random
+
+    def get_random_number():
+        return random.randint(0, 100)
+
+    config_list_gpt4 = autogen.config_list_from_json(
+        "OAI_CONFIG_LIST",
+        filter_dict={
+            "model": ["gpt-4", "gpt-4-0314", "gpt4", "gpt-4-32k", "gpt-4-32k-0314", "gpt-4-32k-v0314"],
+        },
+    )
+    llm_config = {
+        "config_list": config_list_gpt4,
+        "seed": 42,
+        "functions": [
+            {
+                "name": "get_random_number",
+                "description": "Get a random number between 0 and 100",
+                "parameters": {
+                    "type": "object",
+                    "properties": {},
+                },
+            },
+        ],
+    }
+    user_proxy = autogen.UserProxyAgent(
+        name="User_proxy",
+        system_message="A human admin that will execute function_calls.",
+        function_map={"get_random_number": get_random_number},
+        human_input_mode="NEVER",
+    )
+    coder = autogen.AssistantAgent(
+        name="Player",
+        system_message="You will can function `get_random_number` to get a random number. Stop only when you get at least 1 even number and 1 odd number. Reply TERMINATE to stop.",
+        llm_config=llm_config,
+    )
+    groupchat = autogen.GroupChat(agents=[user_proxy, coder], messages=[], max_round=7)
+    manager = autogen.GroupChatManager(groupchat=groupchat, llm_config=llm_config)
+
+    user_proxy.initiate_chat(manager, message="Let's start the game!")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    test_function_call_groupchat()