Illinois HB 3773: AI Hiring Rules and Employer Checklist

Illinois now has two laws that a talent team using AI has to plan around. The older one, the Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act, deals with one narrow use: AI that analyses recorded video interviews. The newer one, HB 3773, reaches much further. It writes AI into the Illinois Human Rights Act, so any AI that influences who is recruited, hired or promoted is judged by the same civil-rights standard as a human decision.

This guide explains what each law asks of employers, how they overlap, and what to do about it, with a checklist at the end. It is a plain-English explainer as of October 2026 and is not legal advice. Confirm how the laws apply to your organisation with counsel, and check the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) for current guidance. For how Illinois compares with New York City, Colorado and the EU, see our guide to AI hiring laws in 2026.

What is Illinois HB 3773?

Illinois HB 3773 is the bill that amended the Illinois Human Rights Act to cover employers' use of artificial intelligence. It was signed on 9 August 2024 and took effect on 1 January 2026. It makes discriminatory use of AI in employment decisions a civil-rights violation, bans zip codes as a proxy for protected characteristics, and requires notice when AI is used.

The amendment adds three things to the Act:

1. A discrimination rule for AI. Using AI in a way that has the effect of discriminating against people in protected classes is a civil-rights violation. The covered decisions include recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, selection for training or apprenticeship, discharge, discipline, tenure, and other terms or conditions of employment.
2. A proxy rule. Using zip codes as a stand-in for protected characteristics is prohibited. Other uses of zip code data are not banned by this rule. Home location can correlate with race or national origin, so a model that uses it can discriminate without ever seeing those characteristics.
3. A notice rule. Employers must notify employees when they use AI for these decisions. The law leaves IDHR to set rules on when notice is needed, its timing and how it is given.

IDHR lists "regulations on artificial intelligence in employment" among the recent additions to the Act on its legislative updates page.

When did the Illinois AI employment law take effect?

The Human Rights Act amendment from HB 3773 took effect on 1 January 2026, even though IDHR's detailed notice rules are not final. IDHR proposed those rules on 15 May 2026 and withdrew them for further work on 2 June 2026, cancelling the planned public hearing. Law-firm reporting since then says the statute's duties still apply while the rulemaking is paused, and no new timeline had been announced at the time of writing. The AI Video Interview Act has been in force since 2020, so employers analysing video interviews with AI have had duties in Illinois for longer.

Who does the Illinois Human Rights Act AI amendment apply to?

It applies to employers covered by the Illinois Human Rights Act, and that is a low bar. According to IDHR, for most discrimination claims an employer is covered if it had at least one employee for each working day in 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding year. For claims involving sexual harassment, disability, or pregnancy and childbirth, one employee is enough.

We found no separate size threshold for the AI provisions. A ten-person company that screens applicants with an AI tool is in the same position as a large one.

The amendment also reaches every protected class in the Act, which in Illinois is a longer list than federal law. IDHR's list includes race, colour, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation (including gender identity), age (40 and over), religion, disability, marital status, pregnancy, military status and unfavourable military discharge, citizenship status, work authorisation status, order of protection status, language, family responsibilities, reproductive health decisions, arrest record, and conviction record (with limitations). A screening model that penalises, say, gaps in employment history or a particular language could raise questions under classes that a federal-only audit would not test.

What counts as AI under HB 3773?

The amendment defines AI broadly, as a machine-based system that infers from the input it receives how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments. Generative AI is included. Read the definition with counsel before ruling a tool out. As a working assumption, treat any system that scores, ranks, filters, recommends or summarises candidates as in scope, whether you built it, bought it, or it arrived as a feature inside your applicant tracking system.

Typical tools to review:

• CV screening and matching that ranks or filters applicants.
• Chatbots that ask knock-out questions and decide who moves on.
• Assessments that produce an automated score or recommendation.
• Video interview platforms that analyse responses.
• Sourcing tools that decide which profiles a recruiter sees.
• Promotion or performance tools that feed into who advances internally.

What does the Illinois AI Video Interview Act require?

The AI Video Interview Act applies when an employer asks applicants for Illinois-based positions to record video interviews and uses AI to analyse them. Before the interview, the employer must tell the applicant that AI may be used, explain how the AI works and what general types of characteristics it evaluates, and obtain the applicant's consent. It may not use AI to evaluate applicants who have not consented.

The Act also limits sharing of the video to people whose expertise or technology is needed to evaluate the applicant, and requires the video to be destroyed within 30 days of an applicant's request. Employers that rely solely on AI analysis to decide who gets an in-person interview must also report demographic data on those applicants each year to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Read the Act itself (820 ILCS 42) for the exact wording.

If you use one-way video, our guide to one-way video interviewing covers the format, and our comparison of video interview software helps you ask vendors whether their platform analyses the recording with AI or simply records it for human review. That one question decides whether the Act's consent duty applies.

How do HB 3773 and the AI Video Interview Act fit together?

They overlap. The Video Interview Act sets process rules for one kind of tool, while HB 3773 sets an outcome rule for every AI tool. An AI-analysed video interview has to satisfy both: consent and explanation under the Video Interview Act, and no discriminatory effect plus notice under the Human Rights Act.

Is the vendor or the employer responsible under Illinois law?

Under the Human Rights Act, the duty sits with the employer. A vendor's assurance that its model is fair does not move that responsibility, because the question is the effect of your use on your applicants and employees.

That makes vendor due diligence part of compliance. Ask each vendor what data the model uses (and whether address or zip code is among it), what bias testing has been done and on which groups, whether you can get the outcome data to run your own checks, and what the tool actually outputs: a score, a rank, a pass or fail. Our guide to choosing a pre-employment assessment platform has a fuller list of questions to put to vendors.

How is the Illinois AI employment law enforced?

A violation of the AI provisions is a civil-rights violation under the Human Rights Act, so it runs through the same process as other employment discrimination. Applicants or employees file a charge with IDHR, and IDHR says a charge must be filed no later than 2 years after the date the discrimination took place.

Federal law sits on top. Title VII disparate impact liability already applies to selection procedures, including automated ones, whoever built the tool. Our guide to AI hiring laws in 2026 covers the federal picture.

What should employers do to comply with Illinois HB 3773?

Start with an inventory, then fix notice, proxies and monitoring in that order. The checklist below is a practical starting point to take to counsel.

1. Inventory every tool. List each system that touches recruitment, hiring, promotion, discipline or similar decisions, and write down what it decides or influences. Include AI features inside your ATS.
2. Mark Illinois scope. Note which roles have Illinois applicants or employees. Remote roles open to Illinois residents may count.
3. Flag video analysis. For any tool that analyses recorded interviews with AI, set up the Video Interview Act's notice, explanation and consent before the interview, and a process for deletion requests and sharing limits.
4. Write the HB 3773 notice. Say which decisions use AI and what the tools do, in plain language. IDHR's rules on the form and timing of notice were withdrawn for further work in June 2026, so watch for new ones, and keep each version of your notice with a date.
5. Remove proxies. Confirm with each vendor that zip code is not an input. Check for other location or history fields that could act as stand-ins for protected characteristics.
6. Test outcomes. Compare pass, advance and offer rates across protected groups at each AI-assisted stage, and investigate any gap before relying on the tool. Our piece on unconscious bias in recruitment covers where bias enters a process.
7. Keep humans accountable. Decide who reviews AI outputs and how a recruiter can override them. Use a consistent interview scorecard and a structured interview for the human stages, so you can show the basis for each decision.
8. Keep records. Store the notices, consents, vendor answers and outcome checks. A charge can arrive up to 2 years after the decision.
9. Review regularly. Re-run the outcome checks when a vendor updates its model or you change how a tool is used.

Where does Cohesyve fit?

Cohesyve is an AI hiring product, so for Illinois roles it belongs in your inventory like any other tool. A company gives Cohesyve a job description, and Cohesyve sources candidates, handles outreach, puts them through AI job simulations of the real work, and returns a ranked shortlist for the hiring team to review. Because the shortlist influences who advances, an Illinois employer using it should include it in its HB 3773 notice and its outcome checks. Plans start from $199 a month billed annually, and new accounts include 10 free candidates.

Common questions

Is HB 3773 the same as the AI Video Interview Act? No. The AI Video Interview Act (in force since 2020) covers AI analysis of video interviews. HB 3773 amended the Illinois Human Rights Act from 1 January 2026 to cover AI in employment decisions generally.

Does HB 3773 require a bias audit? Its duties are the discrimination, proxy and notice rules above; it does not adopt the published bias-audit procedure that New York City's Local Law 144 uses. In practice, testing outcomes across protected groups is the only way to know whether a tool has a discriminatory effect, which is what the law prohibits.

Do we have to give notice if a human makes the final decision? The notice duty applies when AI is used for the covered decisions, so assume a tool that scores or ranks candidates for a human to review is in scope. IDHR's detailed notice rules were not final as of October 2026, so confirm your approach with counsel.

Does the law apply to employers outside Illinois? It applies to employment covered by the Illinois Human Rights Act. If you hire into Illinois, including remote roles filled by Illinois residents, take advice on whether those decisions are covered.

Can we use zip code to plan commutes or shifts? The law prohibits using zip codes as a proxy for protected characteristics. Keep location data out of screening and ranking models, and take advice before using it in any decision about who advances.

Where can I compare Illinois with other states? Our AI hiring laws guide covers New York City, Colorado, the EU and federal law side by side.