California Just Expanded Regulation of Workplace AI Beyond CCPA ADMT

California has enacted three new laws governing employer use of artificial intelligence and automated tools in layoffs, workplace monitoring, discipline, and termination. These laws are separate from the California Consumer Privacy Act’s automated decisionmaking technology (ADMT) rules and apply more broadly to employers and public entities that are not covered by the CCPA. CCPA covered employers may need to integrate compliance with ADMT and Risk Assessment requirements (for sensitive personal information processing activities and automated decisionmaking technology).

Updates to Cal/WARN and workplace-surveillance requirements take effect January 1, 2027. The rules for automated discipline and termination decisions take effect July 1, 2027. Employers should use the remainder of 2026 to identify covered systems, assign responsibility, and update their processes and notices.

1. Cal/WARN Notices for AI-Related Job Displacement

Effective January 1, 2027, SB 951 adds disclosure requirements to the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (Cal/WARN). Cal/WARN generally requires 60 days’ advance notice of a covered mass layoff, relocation, or termination at a covered establishment. Violations may result in civil penalties of up to $500 per day, in addition to other remedies. If AI or automation causes all or a substantial part of a covered event by replacing or automating positions, the employer must add specified information to the notices to affected employees and the Employment Development Department (EDD).

Additional Cal/WARN Notice Content

• The statement “This notice is for a technology displacement” at the top of the notice.
• The number, job classification or occupation, and work location of affected employees.
• The affected job functions that will be automated.
• The category or type of AI or automated technology that substantially caused the displacement.

SB 951 also requires the EDD to submit a one-time report to the Legislature by January 1, 2028, on AI’s effects on hiring practices.

2. Restrictions on AI-Enabled Workplace Surveillance

Effective January 1, 2027, AB 1883 prohibits private and public employers from using AI-enabled workplace surveillance tools to infer or predict an employee’s emotional state or to collect neural data by measuring the employee’s central or peripheral nervous system. The law defines workplace surveillance tools broadly. Covered tools include systems that collect employee data, activities, communications, actions, biometrics, or behavior without direct human observation. Examples include video and audio surveillance, time tracking, geolocation, electromagnetic tracking, and photoelectronic or photo-optical systems.

AB 1883 covers private employers, governmental bodies, the University of California, California State University, and other public academic systems. Its reach is therefore broader than the CCPA’s employment-related ADMT rules. The definition of “employee,” however, does not appear to include external applicants, which leaves pre-employment recruiting tools outside the law. Employers should review products that claim to measure engagement, fatigue, attentiveness, stress, mood, or similar traits. The law provides limited exceptions for specified safety, aircraft, national security, military, space, and defense purposes.

The Labor Commissioner and public prosecutors may enforce the law through citations and civil actions. Remedies include temporary or preliminary injunctions, punitive damages, reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, and civil penalties of up to $500 per violation. Violations may also create exposure under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA).

3. The No Robo Bosses Act: Human Review of Discipline and Termination

Effective July 1, 2027, SB 947, the No Robo Bosses Act, will govern public and private employers’ use of automated decision systems (ADS) to discipline or terminate current employees. It applies even to some employers outside the CCPA’s ADMT rules. Its scope is narrower than comparable laws in Colorado, the European Union, and other jurisdictions because it does not regulate other employment decisions. Employers covered by both SB 947 and the CCPA must comply with both.

Core Requirements Under SB 947

• An employer may not rely solely on an ADS when making a disciplinary or termination decision.
• If an employer primarily relies on ADS output, it shall direct a human to corroborate the decision using data that was collected or used to produce the ADS output or other relevant corroborating or supporting information (which may include, but is not limited to, evaluations, personnel files, work product, peer reviews, witness interviews, including online customer reviews). The employer may not use ADS output that cannot be corroborated or that the reviewer concludes is inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading.
• When communicating the decision, the employer must provide a separate, plain-language written notice in the language ordinarily used for employee communications.
• That the employer primarily relied upon an ADS to make a disciplinary or termination decision with respect to the employee.
• That a human reviewed the decision and corroborated the ADS output.
• Contact information for a human from whom the employee may get more information about the decision and the employee’s right to access a description of the employee's data used by the ADS.
• That the employer is prohibited from retaliating against the employee for exercising these rights.
• If requested, the employer must provide a meaningful, objective description of the employee data used by the ADS.

The SB 947 notice does not replace any notice required by the CCPA’s ADMT rules. Employers subject to both laws should coordinate the notices but satisfy each law separately.

• An employer may not use an ADS to prevent compliance with or violate labor, occupational safety, employment, civil rights, or related laws.
• use an ADS to infer an employee’s protected status under California anti-discrimination law.
• use an ADS to predict and take adverse action against a worker for exercising their legal rights.

In a civil or administrative action, it will be the employer’s duty to establish compliance or that it did not primarily rely upon an ADS.

A collective bargaining agreement may waive the requirements if specified conditions are met. Limited exceptions apply to certain aircraft-development, national-security, military, space, and defense activities.

The Labor Commissioner and public prosecutor may enforce SB 947 through citations and civil actions. Remedies include temporary or preliminary injunctions, punitive damages, reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, and civil penalties of up to $500 per violation.

Near-Term Employer Action Items

Employers should focus on three practical steps: identify covered tools and decisions, assign responsibility, and put the required controls and notices in place.

A. Workforce Reductions and Automation — SB 951

• Flag planned California layoffs, relocations, restructurings, or position eliminations in which AI or automation may replace employee work.
• Create an internal escalation process for assessing whether a covered event is caused “in whole or in substantial part” by AI or automated technology.
• Update California WARN notices to include the technology-displacement statement and fields where applicable.

B. Workplace Monitoring and Surveillance — AB 1883

• Inventory employee-monitoring, productivity, wellness, engagement, security, safety, wearable, biometric, and surveillance tools used in California.
• Confirm with vendors whether any tool measures neural data or infers emotion, mood, stress, fatigue, engagement, attentiveness, or similar traits.
• Document any claimed statutory exception, and disable, modify, or discontinue prohibited functions before January 1, 2027. For those processing sensitive personal information, comply with CCPA Risk Assessment requirements.

C. Discipline and Termination — SB 947

• Identify every automated score, recommendation, dashboard, productivity or attendance metric, and workforce-analytics output used in discipline or termination.
• If applicable, consider alongside CCPA Risk Assessment and ADMT related obligations.
• Require a trained human to review and confirm each primarily automated decision using supporting evidence, document the review, and reject output that is unsupported, inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading.
• Prepare the stand-alone employee notice, designate a human contact, create a process for describing the data used, and retain the output, underlying data, supporting evidence, reviewer identity, and final decision.