From October 1, 2026, using an automated employment-related decision technology is not a defense against a discrimination complaint. In plain language: if a tool with AI in it helps decide who gets hired, promoted or let go, you can soon no longer answer a complaint by pointing at the vendor.
Plain-language summary, not legal advice. Statute: Connecticut Public Act 26-15 (Substitute SB 5), with sections effective from October 1, 2026 through January 1, 2028.
Most coverage of this act is vague about dates. These are the provisions carrying an October 1, 2026 effective date, each with the section it comes from.
Use of an automated employment-related decision technology “shall not be a defense against a complaint alleging a discriminatory practice.” It lands in both discrimination statutes — sections 46a-60 and 46a-81c.
An employer serving a federal WARN notice on the Labor Department must disclose whether the reduction relates to artificial intelligence or another technological change. The answer becomes a state record.
Definitions, developer information duties, disclosure to workers and trade-secret protections — enforced by the Attorney General as an unfair trade practice. No private right of action.
The same sentence that removes the defense continues: the commission or court “may consider evidence of anti-bias testing or similar proactive efforts to avoid the discriminatory practice, including, but not limited to, the quality, efficacy, recency and scope of such testing or efforts” and the results of them.
Read plainly: Connecticut closed one door and left another open. Testing you cannot evidence is worth nothing here. Testing you can date, scope and show a response to is expressly something a court may weigh — which is why this is an evidence problem rather than a policy-writing problem.
A great deal of published commentary says Connecticut’s AI notice duties begin in October 2026. They do not. Getting this wrong in either direction is expensive: panic in September, or complacency until 2028.
If your adviser’s dates disagree with these, check them against the chaptered text — it is public, free, and shorter than the commentary about it.
No employer-size exemption has been identified anywhere in the act — the words “exempt”, “employs” and “or more employees” do not appear in its 74 pages. Plan on the basis that being small is not a shield here.
Staff, applicants, or contractors in the state. Where you are incorporated matters less than who your decisions affect.
Screening, ranking, scheduling, performance scoring, promotion or termination — used as a substantial factor in the decision.
Both yes? Sections 13 and 14 will apply to you, and you should be able to show your work. One yes? Worth documenting anyway — your board will ask. Neither? You still need an AI policy, just not this one.
Connecticut has not asked employers to publish a policy. It has asked them to be able to show their work. Four records do that, and none of them is a document you write once.
An inventory naming every tool that touches an employment decision, what it does, what data it uses, and a single accountable owner — a person, not a department.
A record that someone looked at what the tool could do to a person before it was switched on, and what was done about what they found.
What the technology decided, about whom, and when — kept as a record rather than a screenshot, and retained.
A named reviewer, what they considered, and whether they held the authority to change the outcome. A rationale that can be rewritten afterwards is worth nothing.
Connecticut SB 5 is a dedicated framework in the control library with eleven authored controls across four domains, included from Starter as part of the U.S. States jurisdiction. Enable the jurisdiction and every member statute comes with it — including the ones passed after you subscribe.
Take the free scorecard →Every clause the platform writes cites one of these. The system retrieves controls; it never invents them — which is what makes the output defensible to an auditor rather than merely plausible.
Fifteen questions, about ten minutes, free. No account and no sales call. You get a banded score and a named list of the gaps behind it.
This page is a plain-language summary of Connecticut Public Act 26-15 (Substitute SB 5), with sections taking effect between October 1, 2026 and January 1, 2028. It is not legal advice, and GOVERNBOX.ai does not promise a regulatory outcome. Check your obligations with counsel. GOVERNBOX.ai is a product of Gradient Descent LLC, an independent commercial company that is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the State of Connecticut or any U.S. government agency.