Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
Your hiring process probably uses artificial intelligence right now, whether you know it or not. The applicant tracking system that ranks resumes before a human reads them. The assessment platform that scores candidates on a video interview. The scheduling tool that screens out applicants who cannot work certain shifts. Vendors sold these tools as efficiency. Illinois law now treats them as a compliance obligation with teeth.
On January 1, 2026, Public Act 103-0804 took effect. It amends the Illinois Human Rights Act, 775 ILCS 5, to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in employment decisions, and it applies to recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, selection for training or apprenticeship, discharge, discipline, tenure, and the terms, privileges, and conditions of employment. That list covers nearly everything an employer does.
If the pattern of the last decade holds, the plaintiffs’ bar will treat this statute the way it treated the Biometric Information Privacy Act and the Genetic Information Privacy Act: find a technical violation, file on behalf of a class of applicants or employees, and multiply. The employers who fared best in the BIPA wave were the ones who fixed their practices before the first demand letter. This statute offers the same head start.