Colorado’s 2024 AI Bill – What’s the status?

By Michael Santo, COSHRM Legislative Director and Managing Attorney at Bechtel & Santo

Let’s jump into our HR Wayback Machine (or a “time machine” for those who didn’t grow up with the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon and the adventures of Mr. Peabody and Sherman) and head back to late Spring 2024. The Colorado legislature has just presented Governor Polis with Senate Bill 24-205, which could be considered an “ahead-of-the curve” bill surrounding artificial intelligence (“AI”) because not many states had proposed similar bills at that time.

In the 20+ page AI bill, the proponents identified the bill’s intent was ensuring that developers and deployers, which is a term referring to users of AI, employed “reasonable care” to protect consumers from any known or reasonably foreseeable risks of algorithmic discrimination in high-risk systems, which the bill identified as loan approvals, hiring determinations, medical-care decisions, etc.

Essentially, the bill identified that developers needed to take “reasonable care” to: (1) advise deployers of the potential for algorithmic discrimination when using AI in high-risk systems; (2) develop systems for assessing whether algorithmic discrimination was occurring; (3) understand how developers, deployers, and other related entities were treating any known or reasonably foreseeable risk of algorithmic discrimination in high-risk systems and; (4) disclose to Colorado’s Attorney General any known or reasonably foreseeable algorithmic discrimination in high-risk systems within 90 days of discovery or receipt of a credible report. 

In short, the bill required transparency and accountability so that AI systems can’t quietly discriminate and the bill required both developers and deployers to actively prove that they were analyzing, monitoring, and minimizing risks.

When presented with the bill, Governor Polis expressed some reservations about the bill’s attempt to regulate artificial intelligence and the bill’s potential to hamper Colorado organizations’ efforts to develop AI.  But the Governor also expressed hope that this bill, and other future bills in other states, would start a conversation about the use of AI across the entire country.  So, the Governor signed the Bill, which included an effective date of February 1, 2026.

Now, with February 2026, right around the corner, you may wonder, “how are those efforts coming along”?  Well, the best description may be, “slowly and cautiously”.  Another phrase that could be used would be, “still looking for others to join in or even take the lead.”  For example, an 8-member panel involving Colorado Congressman Jeff Hurd and Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Bobert spoke at a recent Colorado Chamber of Commerce event.  During that event, one issue that was discussed was Colorado Senate Bill 24-205.  The 8-member panel, which included other politicians from both sides of the aisle, was unanimous that the federal government, not individual states, should take the lead on the AI topic.

The panel also identified their belief that a state-by-state patchwork of rules and regulations would become unwieldly if implemented and, so, the panel wanted the federal government to take the lead on developing the regulations.  To that end, U.S. House Resolution 1, better known as “One Big Beautiful Bill”, initially had a provision in it that identified that states could not implement any regulation regarding the AI sector for ten (10) years.  The U.S. Senate removed that provision from the BBB before it was passed, and so, there is no current prohibition in federal law preventing states from implementing AI regulations.

This situation would seem to leave Colorado’s 2024-AI Bill in an interesting spot.  After all, the bill is scheduled to go into effect in about 6 months.  But now, with certain U.S. Congressmen expressing the idea that such AI efforts should come from the federal government and not individual state governments, there is certainly a feeling that Colorado’s 2024 AI bill may not actually make it intact to the February 2026 effective date.  But then again, it might.  Frankly, what Colorado developers and deployers could really use would be an “HR Wayforward Machine” to see what happens to this bill over the upcoming six months.  Ah, if it only worked that well.  So, this bill is something that must be monitored over the upcoming six months as we await to learn its fate and what regulations will be in place to prevent discrimination by AI technology.

Want to know how this will affect your organization?

Attend Michael Santo's upcoming session, "Colorado’s Artificial Intelligence Act: What Employers Need to Know Now," on September 19, 2025 in Grand Junction. Click here to register and learn more about the 2025 Regional Conference.