Connecticut switched on the half of its AI employment law that has no grace period
What happened. Gibson Dunn's Artificial Intelligence in Employment newsletter, published October 5, 2026, flags that the anti-discrimination provisions of Connecticut Public Act 26-15 took effect October 1, 2026. Section 13 amends the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act so that using an automated employment decision technology is not a defense to a complaint alleging a discriminatory employment practice, and a court or the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities may consider evidence of anti-bias testing. The provisions most employers have been planning around are the later ones: the plain-language disclosure that a person is interacting with an automated employment decision technology, and the written notice before a decision where that technology is a substantial factor, apply to technologies deployed on or after October 1, 2027, with a cure opportunity that runs to December 31, 2027. The newsletter also notes that Colorado's enforcement of its own automated-decision law is stayed in xAI v. Weiser until the court rules on a preliminary injunction motion that is not due until 28 days after the implementing rules are final.
What it means for you. Look at which half arrived first. The paperwork is still a year out, and the liability is live now. Until October 1 of last week, an employer in Connecticut could at least argue that a tool made the call. That argument is gone, and the statute invites the other side to ask what testing you did. This cuts both ways, because evidence of anti-bias testing is admissible for you as readily as its absence is admissible against you. The practical consequence is that your defense file has to exist before a claim does. Name every tool that screens, ranks, scores or flags an applicant or an employee, including the ones that came switched on inside software you bought for payroll, scheduling or performance. For each one, write down what you tested, when, who ran the test and what you did about the result. If the vendor ran the testing, get the report rather than the marketing page, and get it in writing that you may produce it. A tool you cannot document is a tool you are carrying uninsured.
Source: Gibson Dunn