Employers should be thinking about whether to address the following areas of workplace compliance in 2026. These items on the employer to-do list are not all for the month of January, but don’t forget to come back to them throughout the year.

1. Routine Use of Artificial Intelligence. Does your workplace have a policy on how employees may use AI in performing their jobs? Do you have a preferred platform, or do you require certain settings to be used when employees use AI? Does your confidentiality policy address how employees can engage with AI and still protect your data? Or do you pretend that employees don’t use AI at all?
2. Training Managers to Understand Requests for Accommodation Under the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act (PWFA). This act has been in effect since June 27, 2023, and there have been a number of recent settlements, lawsuits, and charges against employers for failing to accommodate known limitations due to pregnancy. Recent EEOC enforcement examples include EEOC v. U.S. Steel, Case No. 0:25-cv-04721, filed in the District of Minnesota, EEOC v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., Case No. 25-cv-5448, filed in the Eastern District of New York, and settlements listed here and here. However, now that the EEOC has a three-member quorum, one of its anticipated policy changes will likely be to the PWFA guidelines to remove the requirement to accommodate conditions such as abortion, menstruation, infertility, and menopause. Training managers to act quickly when an employee...

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