Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 26-189 on 14 May 2026, repealing and replacing Senate Bill 24-205, the 2024 Consumer Protections for Artificial Intelligence Act. SB 26-189 is formally titled the Automated Decision-Making Technology Act and takes effect 1 January 2027.
SB 26-189 defines "automated decision-making technology" as any computational system that processes personal data to generate output used to make, guide, or assist a decision, including predictions, recommendations, classifications, rankings, and scores. The prior law's duty of care, risk management program, and impact assessment requirements are repealed. In their place, SB 26-189 imposes three obligations on deployers: a pre-use notice to consumers before covered automated decision-making technology is applied in a consequential decision; a post-adverse-outcome notice delivered within 30 days where the technology materially influences a decision that adversely affects the consumer; and consumer rights to access and correct personal data and to request meaningful human review of the system's output.
The law applies to private entities deploying covered technology in consequential decisions affecting Colorado residents. "Consumer" is defined to include Colorado-resident employees and job applicants, bringing workforce decisions within scope and filling a gap left by the Colorado Privacy Act, which largely excludes employment data from its consumer-rights provisions. Developers placing automated decision-making systems on the Colorado market and deployers integrating them into hiring, lending, housing, education, and healthcare processes must assess whether their products meet the "covered" threshold and update notice and disclosure procedures before the January 2027 effective date.
The Colorado Attorney General has stated that enforcement will be deferred until rulemaking concludes, providing additional lead time for compliance. The precise scope of "consequential decision" and the threshold for "material influence" remain open questions pending final rules. Entities should monitor the AG's rulemaking docket at coag.gov for publication of proposed rules.
Licentium advises on AI governance, technology regulation, and compliance program design across North American and European jurisdictions. We may advise on this matter or assist through our partner network. Work we undertake includes AI Act classification analysis, automated decision-making policy drafting, employer AI-use impact assessments, and regulatory response strategy for clients deploying automated systems in consequential decisions.
Source: Colorado General Assembly, SB 26-189 Automated Decision-Making Technology, signed 14 May 2026