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AI resume screening and your rights

If software ranked or rejected your application, you may have a right to know, and in some places the employer had to test that software for bias first. The rules are new, uneven and changing. Here is where they stand, with sources, as of September 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.

Where the rules are

New York City. Local Law 144, enforced since 5 July 2023, covers “automated employment decision tools.” An employer using one to screen candidates for a job in the city must have it independently audited for bias within the past year, publish a summary of the audit, and notify candidates that the tool is being used. ¹
Illinois. Since 1 January 2026, an amendment to the state’s Human Rights Act requires notice whenever AI is used “to influence or facilitate employment decisions,” and bars AI use that has a discriminatory effect. ²
Colorado. The state passed the first broad AI law in 2024, then a court blocked its enforcement in April 2026 and the legislature replaced it with a narrower notice-based law scheduled for 2027. Treat Colorado as in flux and check the current status. ³
European Union. The AI Act classes systems used “to analyse and filter job applications, and to evaluate candidates” as high-risk, which brings transparency, human oversight and documentation duties. Those obligations were due in August 2026 and have been pushed to 2 December 2027. ^{4, 5}
US federal law. There is no AI-specific federal hiring law. The EEOC removed its AI guidance in early 2025, but Title VII, the ADEA and the ADA still apply to decisions made with AI, as employment lawyers were quick to point out. ⁶

The case that changed the conversation

In Mobley v. Workday, an applicant who says he was rejected from over 100 jobs sued the software vendor rather than the employers. In May 2025 a federal judge in California let the age-discrimination claim proceed as a nationwide collective covering everyone screened by Workday’s AI recommendation system. Workday itself told the court that “1.1 billion applications were rejected using Workday” in the period at issue. In June 2026 the court held that under California law Workday can be directly liable for its “own engagement in FEHA-regulated activities on the employer’s behalf.” ⁷

SHRM, the main HR professional body, summarized the lesson for employers: “The employer’s name is on the rejection notice, not the vendor.” ⁸ The case is ongoing. Whatever its outcome, it has already made large employers more careful about what their screening software does.

What you can actually do with this

Read the application page. In New York City the notice must be there. Elsewhere, a line about “automated tools” or “AI-assisted review” in the posting or privacy policy tells you the same thing.
Look for the audit. New York City employers must publish a bias audit summary, usually on the careers page. It tells you the tool exists and roughly how it treats different groups.
Ask for a human review. Under the EU rules, and increasingly in practice elsewhere, employers using high-risk AI must provide human oversight. A polite request costs nothing.
Keep records. If you believe you were screened out because of age, disability or another protected characteristic, keep the posting, your application and any notices. Complaints go to the EEOC or your state agency in the US, and to the data protection authority in the EU.
Don’t count on it. These rights help after the fact. The thing that helps before the fact is a resume the system can read and match. The checklist.

Check my resume

Questions

Does an employer have to tell me why I was rejected?

In most of the US, no. The new laws require notice that AI was used, not an explanation of the decision. The EU rules go further on documentation and oversight, but they don’t guarantee an individual explanation either.

Can I opt out of AI screening?

Rarely. Notices sometimes offer an alternative process, and some employers will accommodate a request, especially for disability-related reasons. Ask, but expect the answer to vary.

Does this apply to keyword matching, or only to “real” AI?

The definitions differ. New York City’s law covers tools that use machine learning or similar techniques to substantially assist decisions; a plain keyword search by a recruiter is generally outside it. The EU definition is broader. Either way, matching the posting’s wording helps with both.

Sources

NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, “Automated Employment Decision Tools (Local Law 144).”
Hinshaw & Culbertson, “Illinois Adopts AI-in-Employment Regulations,” 26 February 2026.
McDermott Will & Schulte, “Colorado AI law in flux,” 27 May 2026.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Annex III, point 4(a).
Gibson Dunn, “EU AI Act Omnibus Agreement: Postponed High-Risk Deadlines,” 27 May 2026.
Cooley, “Federal Laws Still Apply Despite AI Guidance Disappearance,” 21 February 2025.
Mobley v. Workday, No. 23-cv-00770 (N.D. Cal.), order of 16 May 2025 and order of 22 June 2026.
Roy Maurer, “The Workday AI Lawsuit Is a Wake-Up Call for HR,” SHRM, 1 July 2026.