(The Center Square) – A pair of business-backed bills were the first actions signed into law following Colorado’s 2026 legislative session, as Gov. Jared Polis closes the curtains on his last session in office.
The new laws make fundamental changes to the state’s AI regulation and government accountability and hint toward a set of priorities for Polis, who’s termed out and will leave office on Jan. 12, 2027.
“This is a big step in the right direction for Colorado, and a model for the rest of the country,” Polis said after signing the Automated Decision-Making Technology bill, Senate Bill 26-189, into law. “Replacing the old law that hasn’t taken effect yet will boost Colorado innovation and entrepreneurship. This law was created through thoughtful collaboration with input from many stakeholders including consumers, advocates, developers and more.”
SB26-189 came as a long drawn-out reaction to Colorado’s SB24-205, the first consumer protections law in the U.S. designed for AI, and widely considered some of the strictest AI regulations in the country. Among other changes, the bill sought to minimize unfair discrimination by AI models used in important decisions such as employment screenings.
But the 2024 law, which would have classified many AI models as “high-risk artificial intelligence systems” and required much greater accountability from developers of these models, never came into effect after an initial start date of Feb. 2026.
Colorado’s new AI law directly replaces the 2024 law, but defines AI models as “automated decision-making technology” that process personal data to make any number of outcomes from rankings to general judgement, such as Chat GPT. The new legislation does not focus on eliminating discrimination from the models, but it does allow for people who feel they have been discriminated against to request a human review of an AI decision.
“Politicians across the country are avoiding talking about regulations in this space out of fear that big tech donors would get involved in campaigns against them,” said Rep. Javier Mabrey, D-Denver and Jefferson counties, during last week’s final House reading of the AI bill. “I’m not saying that about anyone in this room, but this issue, probably better than any other I can think of, exemplifies the crisis in our democracy. I can think of very few issues where there is a bigger gap between what voters are asking us to do and what politicians are willing and able to do.”
Mabrey said Colorado should aim for greater AI regulations and argued the industry is more aimed at job elimination than creation. “I am a yes for today – because some regulation is better than none – but the people of Colorado deserve much stronger protection.”
Several other supporters of the near-unanimous bill from the state House and Senate conceded reservations about SB26-189’s watered-down regulations from the 2024 AI law.
The other bill to receive early approval from Governor Polis was SB26-137, an administrative move that requires government departments to review their rules every five years. While the law may not be the most flashy, the business industry applauded the move.
“We look at that as good government. We think that that’s something that makes a lot of sense,” Michael Smith, Colorado director for the small business policy group NFIB, told The Center Square. “It’ll keep rules up to date, eliminate things that are duplicative and make sure that things are funded at the right levels.”
Smith added that navigating government regulations can be difficult for small businesses, and said the regular review of rules would make this process less complicated.
“Colorado is the best state to live, work, play and do business,” said Polis after signing SB26-137 into law. “This bipartisan effort will help lower the cost of doing business in Colorado by cutting through burdensome regulations, and will attract more businesses to Colorado.”
The Colorado Chamber of Commerce called the early signing of the two bills business-friendly and said the governor “sent a signal” by making them the first two laws signed post-session.
