Illinois AI-in-employment notice kit (HB 3773)

• 1. No discriminatory AI.An employer may not use AI that has the effect of subjecting employees to discrimination on the basis of a protected class (race, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin and the other classes the Act already protects).
• 2. No ZIP-code proxies.An employer may not use ZIP codes as a proxy for a protected class, for example by screening applicants in or out by where they live.
• 3. Notice.An employer must tell employees when it uses AI for recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, selection for training or apprenticeship, discharge, discipline, tenure, or the terms, privileges or conditions of employment.

The statute defines artificial intelligence broadly. In the words IDHR quoted from Section 2-101(M) of the Act in its own draft rules, it is “a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments,” and it expressly “includes generative artificial intelligence” such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude and Gemini.

Who is covered

The provision lives inside the Human Rights Act’s employment article, which reaches employers with one or more employees in Illinois. Every law-firm alert we read says the same: there is no small-business carve-out, so a five-person firm in the Loop or a dental office in Evanston is covered the same way a large company is. Staffing agencies and other agents acting for an employer were also covered under the IDHR draft.

What it does not do

• It does not require AI training for employees. Training is how most employers choose to show they took the non-discrimination and notice duties seriously, not a legal mandate.
• It does not ban AI in HR. You may keep using an applicant tracking system that ranks résumés or a tool that drafts performance reviews, as long as it does not discriminate and people are told.
• It does not say how, when or in what form notice must be given. The Act tells the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) to adopt rules on “the circumstances and conditions that require notice.” Those rules do not exist yet (see section 2).

How it is enforced

Because the duty sits in the Human Rights Act, it is enforced the way other Illinois employment discrimination claims are: a charge with IDHR, then the Human Rights Commission or court, with the Act’s usual remedies (back pay, damages, attorneys’ fees). Failing to give notice is itself a violation, separate from whether any discrimination occurred. Note also that the older Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act (820 ILCS 42, in force since 2020) still applies separately when AI analyses recorded video interviews: notice, an explanation of how the AI works, and consent before the interview.

• December 2025IDHR circulates a draft “Subpart J: Use of Artificial Intelligence in Employment” (Part 2520) to stakeholders.
• January 1, 2026The statute takes effect with no rules in place.
• May 15, 2026IDHR formally proposes the rules in the Illinois Register (50 Ill. Reg. 6794), with a hearing set for June 10 and comments due June 29.
• June 2, 2026IDHR announces it is postponing the rulemaking and cancels the hearing, citing the need for “continued collaboration with other state agencies.”
• June 26, 2026Formal withdrawal published in the Illinois Register (50 Ill. Reg. 8755). No replacement timeline.
• November 4, 2026Status check for this page: nothing new found (details below).

Why the withdrawn draft still matters

The withdrawal paused the rulemaking; it did not pause the law. And the draft is the only document in which the enforcing agency has said what it thinks a good notice looks like. It would have required notice to current employees annually and within 30 days of adopting a new or substantially updated AI tool, notice to applicants in every job posting, delivery through the handbook, a physical posting, the intranet or website, and job postings, notices in plain language and in the languages commonly spoken by the workforce, accessible to employees with disabilities, and four-year retention of notices and records of AI use. It listed seven things a notice should contain, which our model notice in section 3 follows. The one thing it never produced was a template, so the drafting falls to you.

The draft also drew a useful line around what counts: notice is triggered when an AI output “influences or facilitates” a covered decision, even if the final call is human; it is not triggered by AI used for other business purposes such as marketing copy, nor by ordinary software such as spreadsheets, spam filters or spellcheck.

3.1 / InventoryStep one

1. AI tool inventory

You cannot give notice of tools you have not listed. Start with every system that touches an applicant or employee and ask one question: does its output influence or facilitate a covered decision? Most of the surprises are features inside tools you already pay for.

Illustrative example. Replace every bracketed row with your real tools; delete rows that do not apply. Keep the sheet dated and keep old versions for four years.

Two columns do most of the work. “Employment use” should name the covered decision in the statute’s words, because that is what your notice has to say. “Notice given?” should record where and when, because under the withdrawn draft you would need to prove it four years later. If a vendor cannot tell you whether a feature uses AI, write that down too; Illinois law firms are clear that employers, not vendors, carry the liability.

3.2 / NoticeStep two

2. Draft employee notice

A short, plain notice built from the seven elements in the withdrawn IDHR draft. It is written so each element can be translated line by line, with a Spanish title already in place for a bilingual poster.

Model language from 312 IT Consulting, not legal advice. The seven numbered items follow the withdrawn IDHR draft (Section 2520.910(e)). The “human review” line is good practice, not a statutory requirement.

Keep the notice boring and specific. Name the product, not “AI tools.” Say what data it reads, and say what it does not read (ZIP codes, age, photos) if that is true. If the same notice goes in job postings, a two-line version works there with a link to the full notice: “[Company] uses [product] to help screen applications. Read our AI notice at [link].” For the wider rules your staff follow when they use AI themselves, pair this notice with an AI acceptable-use policy; the Illinois edition of our template includes a matching clause.

3.3 / DistributionStep three

3. Posting and distribution checklist

The withdrawn draft wanted notice by every channel that applies, not just one. Treat the list as the standard until adopted rules say otherwise.

• Employee handbook or policy manual. Add the notice as its own section; update the handbook acknowledgement so new hires sign for it.
• Job postings. Every posting, on every board and your own careers page, carries the short version with a link to the full notice. Check the boards’ templates: some truncate.
• Intranet or website. Post the full notice where you post other employee notices, with a visible link from the website home page if you have one.
• Physical premises. Print it and put it where the other required Illinois posters hang: break room, time clock, back office.
• Languages. Provide it in the languages commonly spoken by your workforce. In Chicago that is often Spanish and Polish; ask rather than guess, and use a human translator for the final text.
• Accessibility. Plain language, readable type, and a digital copy that works with a screen reader.
• Timing. Annually, and within 30 days of adopting or substantially updating a covered tool. Put the renewal date in the calendar now.
• Video interviews. If a tool analyses recorded interviews, add the separate AI Video Interview Act notice, explanation and consent step before the interview.
• Records. Keep each version of the notice, where and when it was posted, who acknowledged it, and the inventory sheet, for four years. If a charge is filed, preserve everything until it is resolved.
• Vendors. File the vendor’s written description of what the tool does with the data, and any bias-testing summary they will give you.

3.4 / ManagersStep four

4. A 30-minute manager briefing

Managers are where this law is actually complied with or broken: the hiring manager who pastes résumés into a personal chatbot, the supervisor who asks Copilot to rank the team. Thirty minutes covers it.

• 0–5 min
  Why we are hereIllinois law has applied since January 1, 2026, to employers with one Illinois employee. Notice is required even when no one is treated unfairly. There is no state form, so we wrote our own.
• 5–12 min
  What the law saysThree duties: no discriminatory AI, no ZIP-code proxies, notice for the listed decisions. Read the list aloud. Explain “influences or facilitates”: a tool that only ranks, summarises or suggests still counts.
• 12–20 min
  Our tools and our noticeWalk through the inventory. Show the notice and where it lives. Name the point of contact. Explain how an accommodation request is handled and by whom.
• 20–26 min
  What managers may and may not doMay: use approved tools for drafting with a human decision on top. May not: paste applicant or employee data into personal AI accounts; build a screening shortcut in a spreadsheet or chatbot; filter by ZIP code, commute distance or neighbourhood; let a tool’s score be the reason. Always: write down the human reason for the decision.
• 26–30 min
  Questions and sign-offCollect the questions you cannot answer for counsel. Have each manager acknowledge the briefing and the notice; file it with the four-year records.

Run it again whenever the inventory changes, and give new managers the same thirty minutes in their first month. If you want the briefing delivered for you, it is part of what we do.

What 312’s workshops add

Our AI training for Chicago teams delivers the compliance pieces and the skills in the same rollout, so the people who get the notice also know how to use the tools well and where the lines are.

• Tool inventorywe help you find the AI features hiding in tools you already own
• AI acceptable-use policyIllinois edition, with the HB 3773, BIPA and consent clauses
• Manager briefingthe 30 minutes above, delivered on-site or online
• Role workshops2–3 hours per group, up to about 15 people, on their real work
• Bilingual deliveryEnglish and Spanish materials
• Written scope firstthe first call is free; we reply within one business day

A single on-site workshop typically starts from about $2,500; a full rollout of workshops, policy and prompt library usually takes one to four weeks. Timelines are estimates and subject to change based on scope. We are not a law firm: we build the inventory, the notice drafts and the training, and your employment counsel signs off on the legal text.