Your AI in HR Must-Do List: Navigating Illinois’ Draft AI Notice Regulations

As employers continue preparations for complying with workplace AI laws that become effective in 2026 (e.g., Colorado SB24-205, California Senate Bill No. 53 and Texas’s Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act), questions remain regarding complying with Illinois HB 3773, the August 2024 amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA).

As we previously reported, effective January 1, 2026, HB 3733 amended the IHRA to expressly regulate the use of AI for employment decisions.

Under the IHRA amendments, employers may not use AI in recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, selection for training or apprenticeship, discharge, discipline, tenure, or the “terms, privileges, or conditions of employment” where the AI has the effect of discriminating against employees on the basis of classes protected by the IHRA. In addition, employers may not use zip codes as a proxy for protected classes. HB 3773 also requires employers that use AI in a manner regulated by the IHRA amendments to notify employees that they are using AI for one or more of those purposes.

HB 3773 instructed the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) to adopt “any rules necessary for the implementation and enforcement” of the amendments, including, but not limited to, “rules on the circumstances and conditions that require notice, the time period for providing notice, and the means for providing notice.”

Last week, the National Federation of Independent Business reported that the IDHR recently discussed draft rules (see Subpart J – Use of Artificial Intelligence in Employment) to implement the notification requirement with stakeholders.

Obligation to Provide Notice

Pursuant to the draft rules, an employer must provide notice to employees whenever it uses AI to “influence or facilitate” any “covered employment decision.” A “covered employment decision” is a “decision with respect to recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, selection for training or apprenticeship, discharge, discipline, tenure, or the terms, privileges, or conditions of employment.” Notably, an employer must provide notice regardless of whether its use of AI has the purpose or effect of subjecting employees to unlawful discrimination.

The draft rules provide the following examples that generally require notice:

• Computer-based assessments or tests that:
  • Make predictive assessments about prospective or current employees;
  • Measure a prospective or current employee’s skills, dexterity, reaction-time, and/or other mental or physical abilities or characteristics;
  • Measure a protective or current employee’s personality trait, aptitude, attitude, and/or cultural fit; and/or
  • Screen, evaluate, categorize, and/or recommend prospective or current employees.
• AI used to direct certain job advertisements or recruiting materials or activities to targeted groups, areas, or populations.
• Screening resumes for particular terms or patterns.
• Analyzing facial expressions, word choice, and/or voice in online interviews, videos, or interview transcripts.
• Analyzing data acquired from third parties regarding prospective or current employees.

An employer need not provide notice if it uses AI for “other business operation purposes” that do not “influence or facilitate” a “covered employment decision,” such as:

• Generating text or images for promotional purposes.
• Using an automated computer system that does not qualify as AI as defined in the IHRA, such as word processing and spreadsheet software, spam- and robocall-filtering, that does not make predictions, recommendations or decisions that “influence or facilitate” a “covered employment decision.”

Timing of Notice

When an employer must provide notice depends on whether it provides it to current or prospective employees:

Current Employees

Annually and within 30 days of adoption of a new or substantially updated AI.

Protective Employees 

As part of the job notice or posting.

Means for Providing Notice

The draft rules identify several ways that an employer may provide notice, including:

1. Employee handbooks, manuals, or policy documents;
2. Conspicuously at employer’s physical premises or any intranet or external website where it customarily posts notices to prospective or current employees; and
3. On any job notice or posting.

Notice Content

According to the draft rules, the notice must include the following information:

1. The product name and (if applicable) developer and (if applicable) vendor of the AI system;
2. Identity of “covered employment decision[s]” the AI is “influencing or facilitating” (e.g., recruitment, hiring, discipline);
3. Purpose of the AI system, including categories of personal information or employee data collected or processed by the AI system (e.g., summarize resumes submitted by applicants, score resumes relative to preset criteria, evaluating text exchange between employee and chatbot);
4. Types of job position(s) for which the AI tool will be used;
5. Contact person (e.g., hiring manager or HR) who can answer questions about the employer’s use of the AI system;
6. The right to request, and instructions for requesting, a reasonable accommodation; and
7. Language stating that employer is not using AI for a “covered employment decision” that has the effect of subjecting employees to discrimination on the basis of protected classes under the IHRA or using zip codes as a proxy for protected classes under the IHRA.

In addition, the notices must: (a) use plain language and a format that makes it readable; (b) be available in the languages commonly spoken by the employer’s workforce; and (c) be reasonably accessible to employees with disabilities.

Employer Takeaways

At this point the IDHR’s draft notice rules are just that, draft rules. Moreover, it is unclear what impact, if any, President Trump’s recent Executive Order “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence” may have on state laws like Illinois HB 3773 or the draft rules. Nevertheless, for employers with employees or prospective employees in Illinois that are looking to get a head start on complying with the AI amendments to the IHRA, the draft rules provide a helpful roadmap.

EBG attorneys will continue to actively monitor developments with the IDHR’s notice rules, as well as AI legal developments. Please contact your EBG attorney for more information.