Connecticut Public Act 26-15, automated employment-related decision technology

What it is

Public Act 26-15 began as Senate Bill 5, An Act Concerning Online Safety, and was signed by the Governor on 27 May 2026. It is a broad act. Alongside rules on AI companions, synthetic content and online safety, sections 7 to 12 regulate what the Act calls automated employment-related decision technology, and section 13 amends Connecticut’s anti-discrimination law to deal with it.

Connecticut’s earlier attempts at a broad AI law did not pass. This is a narrower, transparency-first law aimed at AI in the workplace. It does not require risk assessments or bias audits.

Who it applies to

The duties fall on developers and deployers doing business in Connecticut.

• A developer develops, or intentionally and substantially modifies, an automated employment-related decision technology.
• A deployer puts one into use in the state.

Automated employment-related decision technology is any technology that processes personal data and uses computation to generate an output, such as a prediction, recommendation, classification, ranking or score, that is a substantial factor used to make or materially influence an employment-related decision. A substantial factor is one that meaningfully alters the outcome of the decision. Ordinary software such as word processing, spreadsheets, hosting, security tools and databases is excluded unless it makes or materially influences the decision, as are systems used only incidentally and purely descriptive or statistical information not relied on.

An employment-related decision is a decision made using a person’s personal data to hire, promote, discipline or discharge them, renew their employment, select them for training or apprenticeship, or about their tenure, terms, privileges or conditions of employment. Decisions with only nonmaterial effects on tasks, hours or assignments, and decisions about workplace health and safety, scheduling and planning, or productivity monitoring, are excluded.

What it requires

Developers. For technology deployed in Connecticut on or after 1 October 2027, the developer gives the deployer all the information the deployer needs to meet its disclosure and notice duties. This applies only where the technology was advertised, marketed, configured, contracted for, sold or licensed to materially influence employment decisions.

Disclosure on interaction. A deployer whose technology is intended to interact with employees or applicants discloses, in plain language, that the person is interacting with it, unless a reasonable person would find that obvious.

Written notice before the decision. A deployer using the technology to generate an output for making, or as a substantial factor in making, an employment-related decision gives the employee or applicant written notice before the decision is made. The notice covers that the technology is deployed, its purpose and the nature of the decision, its trade name, the categories of personal data it will process and how they will be assessed, the sources of that data, and the deployer’s contact details.

Trade secrets. Nothing requires disclosure of trade secrets, but anyone withholding information on that basis must tell the other party that it is withholding information and why.

No technology defence. Section 13 amends section 46a-60 of the general statutes so that using automated employment-related decision technology is not a defence to a complaint of discriminatory employment practice. The Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities or a court may consider evidence of anti-bias testing or similar proactive efforts, including their quality, efficacy, recency and scope, their results and the employer’s response.

Layoff disclosure. Section 26 requires an employer that files a federal WARN Act notice with the Labor Department to say whether the layoffs are related to its use of AI or another technological change.

Key dates

• 27 May 2026. Signed as Public Act 26-15.
• 1 October 2026. Sections 7 to 13 and section 26 take effect.
• 1 October 2027. Developer and deployer duties apply to technology deployed from this date.
• 31 December 2027. Until this date the Attorney General may give a notice of violation and 60 days to cure before bringing an action.

How it relates to other frameworks

Connecticut takes the notice-and-information path rather than the testing path. NYC Local Law 144 requires an independent bias audit, and Colorado SB 26-189 adds explanations after adverse outcomes and a right to human review. Connecticut’s section 13, like California’s ADS regulations, makes anti-bias testing relevant evidence without mandating it, and like Illinois it treats the technology as no shield against discrimination law.

The Act sits alongside Connecticut’s consumer privacy law, which gives residents profiling opt-out and assessment rights covered on the US state privacy laws page. An employer that already keeps an inventory of its hiring tools, the data each uses and who supplies it has most of what the notice needs.

A note on this page

This is Aicura’s reading of Public Act 26-15. It is not legal advice and it is not the Act itself. Read the public act published by the Connecticut General Assembly, and take advice on how it applies to your organisation.