Illinois AI hiring laws: the Human Rights Act AI rule and the AI Video Interview Act

Illinois has two laws that deal directly with AI in employment. The AI Video Interview Act has applied to AI analysis of recorded interviews since 2020. Since 1 January 2026, the Illinois Human Rights Act also covers the use of AI across the whole employment relationship. This page sets out both, from the text published by the Illinois General Assembly, for workers, candidates and employers.

The short answer: it is a civil rights violation for an employer to use AI that has the effect of subjecting employees to discrimination on the basis of protected classes, to use zip codes as a proxy for protected classes, or to fail to notify employees that it uses AI for employment decisions (775 ILCS 5/2-102(L), as added by Public Act 103-0804). Separately, an employer that uses AI to analyze recorded video interviews must give notice, explain the AI and get consent first (820 ILCS 42/5).

The Human Rights Act AI rule

• Which decisions: recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, selection for training or apprenticeship, discharge, discipline, tenure, and the terms, privileges or conditions of employment (2-102(L)(1)).
• Discriminatory effect: the rule is about AI that "has the effect" of subjecting employees to discrimination on the basis of protected classes under the Act, so the wording focuses on the effect of the tool.
• Zip codes: using zip codes as a proxy for protected classes is listed as a violation in its own right (2-102(L)(1)).
• Notice: failing to give notice to an employee that the employer is using AI for those purposes is also a violation (2-102(L)(2)). The Illinois Department of Human Rights must adopt rules on when notice is required, the time period and the means of giving it, so check the Department's current rules before relying on any particular format.
• What counts as AI: a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers from the input it receives how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments. It includes generative AI (2-101(M)-(N)).
• Start date: the Public Act took effect on 1 January 2026 (Public Act 103-0804, s99).

The AI Video Interview Act

This Act applies to an employer that asks applicants to record video interviews and uses an AI analysis of the videos when considering applicants for positions based in Illinois (820 ILCS 42/5).

• Before the interview: notify each applicant that AI may be used to analyze the interview and consider their fitness for the position, explain how the AI works and what general types of characteristics it uses, and obtain the applicant's consent (s5(1)-(3)).
• No consent, no AI: an employer may not use AI to evaluate applicants who have not consented (s5).
• Sharing: videos may be shared only with persons whose expertise or technology is necessary to evaluate the applicant's fitness (s10).
• Deletion: on the applicant's request, the employer must delete the interviews within 30 days and instruct anyone who received copies, including backups, to delete them too (s15).
• Demographic reporting: an employer that relies solely on AI analysis of video interviews to decide who gets an in-person interview must collect the race and ethnicity of applicants who are and are not offered an in-person interview, and of applicants hired. It reports this to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity by 31 December each year, covering the 12 months ending on 30 November (s20(a)-(b)). The Department then reports to the Governor and General Assembly by 1 July on whether the data discloses racial bias (s20(c)).

Practical steps

• Employers: list every AI tool used at any stage from recruitment to discharge, test outcomes across protected classes, remove zip codes and other location data that could stand in for them, set up employee notice in line with the Department's rules, and for video interviews build notice, explanation and consent into the invitation.
• Candidates: you can decline consent to AI analysis of a video interview, and you can ask for your interview videos to be deleted.
• Employees: ask your employer whether and how it uses AI in decisions about you, and keep any notice you receive.

For Colorado, see Colorado's automated decision-making law. For Maryland's consent rule on facial recognition in interviews, see facial recognition in job interviews in Maryland. For fingerprint, face and voice scans at work, see Illinois BIPA at work. For New York City's bias audit law, see NYC Local Law 144. For other US and EU rules, see AI in hiring and AI and workplace discrimination under US federal law.

This page covers Illinois and is general information based on the statute text as published by the Illinois General Assembly when checked on 2 November 2026, not legal advice.