From 1 January 2026, Illinois HB 3773 amends the Illinois Human Rights Act so that an employer using artificial intelligence with a discriminatory effect on a protected class violates the Act. It also bars zip code as a proxy for protected classes and requires employers to notify an employee when AI is being used in employment decisions.
Illinois HB 3773 does not create a standalone AI statute. It amends the Illinois Human Rights Act, which means AI-driven employment decisions are judged under the state's existing civil rights machinery rather than a new parallel regime. It took effect on 1 January 2026.
The prohibition is drawn around effect, not intention. Employers may not use artificial intelligence that has the effect of subjecting employees to discrimination on the basis of a class protected by the Act, across recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, selection for training or apprenticeship, discharge, discipline, tenure, and the terms, privileges or conditions of employment. That is deliberately the whole employment lifecycle, not just the hiring screen — and because recruitment and hiring are named, applicants sit inside the discrimination ban.
The law also closes the most common workaround directly: employers may not use zip codes as a proxy for protected classes. Geography correlates strongly with race and national origin in Illinois, and a model that never sees a protected attribute can still reproduce the pattern by reading location instead.
Separately from the discrimination ban, there is a notice duty — and it is drawn more narrowly. The statutory text at 775 ILCS 5/2-102(L)(2) makes it a civil rights violation for an employer to fail to provide notice to an employee that it is using artificial intelligence for the purposes described above. The obligation runs to employees, and it applies whether or not the particular use turns out to be discriminatory. The Illinois Department of Human Rights is directed to adopt rules on the circumstances and conditions requiring notice, the time period for giving it, and the means of providing it.
Enforcement runs through the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the same agency that handles other complaints under the Act. Note the contrast with Texas, which reached the opposite design choice in the same period: Illinois turns on discriminatory effect, while the Texas Act turns on intent.
Illinois — what the law requires
The figures AI Law Tracker holds for Illinois — tracked jurisdiction-wide, not derived from this story. See every source on the Illinois law page →
Key requirement. Employers must notify employees when AI assists in hiring, reviews, promotions, or discipline, and may not use AI that discriminates against protected classes (including via ZIP-code proxies).
Jurisdiction record last verified Jul 11, 2026
Sources & citations
- The statutory text of the AI provision: 775 ILCS 5/2-102(L)(1) prohibits AI with a discriminatory effect and zip-code proxies across recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal, training, discharge, discipline, tenure and terms of employment; (L)(2) makes it a violation to fail to provide notice to an employee; and the Department of Human Rights is to adopt rules on the circumstances, timing and means of notice. www.ilga.gov
- The amendment to the Illinois Human Rights Act, the 1 January 2026 effective date, the effect-based standard, and enforcement by the Illinois Department of Human Rights. natlawreview.com
- Corroborating analysis of the covered decisions and the employer notice duty. www.workforcebulletin.com
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How this was made. This story is drafted by an automated pipeline from the primary sources cited above, then checked against those sources before it is published. Nothing is published as raw machine output, and no claim here is stronger than the source it links to. Full methodology · our own data & AI practices.