AI Laws in North Dakota (ND)

As of 2026-04-22, North Dakota has not enacted an AI-specific statute; the North Dakota Attorney General office defers to no comprehensive privacy statute; UDAP coverage via N.D.C.C. sec. 51-15-02. Operators across sectors in North Dakota watch federal signals first.

North Dakota's non-legislation on AI means the North Dakota Attorney General office has discretion to apply no comprehensive privacy statute to AI-driven consumer harms as they arise.

The federal and neighboring-state framework that governs your AI operations. Cross-Sector operators in North Dakota operate under a federal-dominant framework anchored by FTC Section 5 (15 USC 45) and NIST AI RMF 1.0, with adjacent authorities Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) / NIST Cybersecurity Framework (15 U.S.C. § 6801-6809; NIST CSF 2.0); General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (for EU users) (EU Regulation 2016/679); Section 508 / ADA Title III (Digital Accessibility) (29 U.S.C. § 794(d); 42 U.S.C. § 12181). FTC Operation AI Comply (Sep 2024) targeted five companies across sectors. The practical risk they have to price in is cross-sector FTC Section 5 exposure and state UDAP liability, and the bellwether signal to monitor is NIST AI RMF 1.0 (Jan 2023) is cited as the federal baseline across 30+ agency guidance documents. Minnesota -- Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act (Minn. Stat. ch. 325M) — automated-decision / profiling opt-out sets the de-facto regional floor. North Dakota enacted HB 1361 (2025) clarifying that "person" in state code does not include artificial intelligence, but has adopted no comprehensive AI regulation. Use this as a starting point; sector pages on this site go deeper into industry-specific obligations.

Federal law still governs Cross-Sector AI in North Dakota primarily through FTC Section 5 (15 USC 45) and NIST AI RMF 1.0. Adjacent federal authorities include Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) / NIST Cybersecurity Framework (15 U.S.C. § 6801-6809; NIST CSF 2.0); General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (for EU users) (EU Regulation 2016/679); Section 508 / ADA Title III (Digital Accessibility) (29 U.S.C. § 794(d); 42 U.S.C. § 12181). Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) / NIST Cybersecurity Framework (enforced by Federal Trade Commission; NIST) applies to saas platforms handling personal/financial data via ai must implement nist csf security standards: identify, protect, detect, respond, recover. Penalty exposure: ftc civil penalties up to $100,000/violation; private litigation for data breaches. FTC Operation AI Comply (Sep 2024) targeted five companies across sectors.

Two neighboring states shape regional expectations: Minnesota's Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act (Minn. Stat. ch. 325M) — automated-decision / profiling opt-out (penalty Up to $7,500 per violation, deadline In effect since July 31, 2025) and Montana's Consumer Data Privacy Act (AI provisions) (penalty Up to $7,500 per violation). Any North Dakota-headquartered operator touching those markets inherits the stricter of the two.

The enforcement surface for Cross-Sector centres on FTC, CFPB, State Attorneys General, and the statute operators most often under-document is General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (for EU users) (EU Regulation 2016/679) — a gap that surfaces in cross-sector FTC Section 5 exposure disputes. Build an evidence binder covering AI inventory, risk-tier register, incident-response runbook, and board-level AI risk report. Treat NIST AI RMF 1.0 (Jan 2023) is cited as the federal baseline across 30+ agency guidance documents as your leading indicator and escalate when the signal shifts.

With 11-50 employees you can justify a half-time compliance lead and part-time external counsel on retainer. Small-stage Cross-Sector operators should deploy a named compliance lead, formal AI inventory, quarterly bias spot-checks, and a documented escalation path, with semi-annual internal audit with annual external review and ownership resting with a designated AI compliance lead reporting to the CEO. small-business budgets ($50K-$250K) justify a compliance lead plus a GRC tool such as Credo AI, Fairly, or Holistic AI. For Cross-Sector specifically, the sharpest exposure to manage is cross-sector FTC Section 5 exposure and state UDAP liability. Given North Dakota's concentration in energy, agriculture, and government services, oilfield optimization AI and agricultural supply-chain algorithms deserve priority in your AI inventory.

Verified 2026-04-22. See https://www.legis.nd.gov/ for the North Dakota Attorney General public record on North Dakota AI policy.