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My business uses an AI model or vendor tool that scores, ranks or screens people for jobs, loans, housing, insurance, school, healthcare or government benefits in Colorado. Colorado replaced its AI Act with SB 26-189. What records does the new law make me keep for each AI-influenced decision from January 1, 2027, and for how long?

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TL;DR: Colorado's SB 26-189, signed May 14, 2026, repealed the original Colorado AI Act before its June 30, 2026 start and replaced it with a narrower automated decision-making technology (ADMT) law that applies to consequential decisions made on or after January 1, 2027. The impact assessments and risk-management program are gone; what's left sits at the level of each decision. A deployer (the business using a covered ADMT) must keep, for at least three years after the date of each consequential decision, records reasonably necessary to demonstrate compliance, which may include ADMT version identifiers, changelogs and documentation of material mitigation changes. A developer must keep its own compliance records for three years from when each record is created, including system version identifiers, changelogs and the material-update notices it sent to deployers. Those records have to back up the decision-level duties: a pre-use notice, a plain-language explanation within 30 days of an adverse outcome naming the tool, its version number and developer and the types and sources of personal data used, and, on request, correction of inaccurate data and meaningful human review. The Attorney General's October 6, 2026 interim draft rules (not yet adopted as of November 11, 2026) would also require a contemporaneous record of every human review: who reviewed, their authority and training, timestamps, the evidence they saw and a written justification.

What should I check, step by step?

1. List each decision in a covered domain (education, employment, Colorado residential real estate, financial or lending services, insurance, health-care services, essential government services and public benefits) where an ADMT output is a non-de minimis factor that affects the outcome. Include vendor tools built into HR, lending or claims platforms.

  1. Check the exclusions honestly: tools used solely to summarize, organize, translate, draft, route or present information for human review are not ADMT, and customer service triage, routine scheduling, advertising, product recommendations, search and content moderation are not consequential decisions. A summary that also produces a score or ranking that influences the outcome doesn't fit those carve-outs.
  2. For every consequential decision, save at the time it's made: a decision reference, the ADMT name and version, the developer, the pre-use notice version in force, the output, and whether it was the only factor or one of several. The 30-day adverse-outcome explanation and any later dispute both depend on these.
  3. Keep each record for at least three years after the decision date, or longer where another law requires it (for example employment or lending record rules).
  4. Ask each vendor (developer) for its documentation: intended and known harmful uses, categories of training data, known limitations, instructions for monitoring and human review, and direct notice of material updates. File the version you received with a date, because the law ties what you must tell consumers to what the developer gave you.
  5. Keep a changelog of your own: when you switched model versions, thresholds, prompts or vendors, and any mitigation changes made after a problem was found.
  6. Build the human-review record now. For each review, log the reviewer (by staff reference), their authority to approve, modify or override, their training, start and end timestamps, the evidence they had, including anything the consumer sent, and a written reason that is specific to the case rather than a description of how the model works.
  7. Under the interim draft rules, acknowledge a review request within 10 days and complete the review within 45 days. Track both dates per request.
  8. Keep the evidence that would rebut a presumption of material influence where it applies, such as a decision-maker's independent analysis or a decision that went against the model's output. The interim draft rules make that evidence matter.

What records does Colorado's SB 26-189 require AI developers and deployers to keep, and for how long?

Section 6-1-1703, added by SB 26-189, is short: a deployer shall retain, for not less than three years after the date of a consequential decision (or longer if another state or federal law requires), records reasonably necessary to demonstrate compliance with part 17, and those records may include covered ADMT version identifiers, changelogs and documentation of material mitigation changes.

What must a Colorado deployer tell a consumer after an AI-influenced adverse decision?

Before using a covered ADMT to materially influence a consequential decision, the deployer must give clear and conspicuous notice; a prominent public notice reachable at or near the point of interaction satisfies this. After an adverse outcome, the deployer has 30 days to provide a plain-language description of the decision and the ADMT's role, a simple process to request more information including the ADMT's name, version number if applicable, developer, and the types, categories and sources of personal data used, and an explanation of the consumer's rights.

What would Colorado's draft ADMT and chatbot rules add to the law?

The Attorney General filed proposed rules (4 CCR 904-6) on August 11, 2026, released an interim redline on October 6, held the hearing on October 26, and had not adopted final rules as of November 11, 2026. The draft is set to take effect January 1, 2027, so its details may still change.

When can the Colorado Attorney General start enforcing the new ADMT law?

Only the Attorney General enforces the law, a violation is a deceptive trade practice, and the law creates no new private right of action. Before acting, the Attorney General must issue a notice of violation and allow 60 days to cure where a cure is possible, but not for knowing or repeated violations. Law-firm analyses note that the cure provisions are repealed January 1, 2030, and that anti-discrimination claims under other law don't depend on this statute.

How do I ask Rightshold about this (free, no key)?

Add the MCP server https://www.rightshold.com/mcp to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, Grok or VS Code, then ask: “Record a signed receipt when our screening tool scores an applicant: the ADMT name and dated version, a hash of the inputs and of the output, our decision reference and the notice version in force, so we can show what the tool produced for this decision if we have to explain an adverse outcome or prove compliance within the next three years.”

One-click setup

{
  "tool": "record_ai_run",
  "arguments": {
    "model": "<ADMT name and dated version>",
    "provider": "<developer or in-house>",
    "prompt_sha256": "<sha256 of the exact input features or prompt>",
    "output_sha256": "<sha256 of the exact output, e.g. score and reason codes>",
    "params": {
      "decision_ref": "<your decision id, no names>",
      "decision_type": "employment_screen",
      "covered_domain": "employment",
      "notice_version": "<pre-use notice version posted>",
      "developer_doc_version": "<vendor documentation version on file>",
      "used_as": "one_factor_of_several"
    },
    "ran_at": "2027-01-04T15:00:00Z"
  }
}

Rightshold doesn't decide whether Colorado's law applies to you, write notices or explanations, or handle consumer requests, and it doesn't keep your decision files for you. It records the hashes and references you send and lets anyone check them later. Requirements are summarized from SB 26-189 as published in the Colorado session laws (chapter 131, approved May 14, 2026) and from the Attorney General's October 6, 2026 interim draft of 4 CCR 904-6, which was not final as of November 11, 2026. Not legal advice; talk to a lawyer about your use.

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