Keeping human decision-makers involved when businesses use AI to hire and fire employees is slowly gaining traction among state lawmakers, notably in newly enacted California legislation and rulemaking underway in Colorado.
A handful of states so far have successfully passed laws addressing transparency disclosures on employers’ use of artificial intelligence, and a subset of those also call for human oversight. The measures are intended to help prevent algorithmic discrimination and ensure data privacy protections.
California’s legislative session gave the human-in-the-loop concept a significant boost, with an upfront mandate for human input. It’s part of a broad regulatory scheme other states could replicate, as they often do with California labor and privacy laws.
“I don’t think this is going to be a unique thing to California,” said Mishell Parreno Taylor, a partner focused on labor and employment law at Akerman LLP. “It’s going to be something we see across states in a bit of a patchwork.”
Legislation (SB 947) that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed Sept. 30 requires that companies assign a human to “corroborate” AI-powered worker termination or discipline decisions using data the technology used or other relevant information. It’s a revised version of the “No Robo Bosses Act” that Newsom vetoed in 2025.
The upfront oversight goes beyond the opportunity for workers to appeal for human review of a negative outcome in Colorado’s law, set to take effect Jan. 1.
The handful of...
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