Colorado Is Writing Its AI Rules Right Now — How to Weigh In Before July 13

The Colorado AI Act you will actually have to comply with is being written right now — not in the legislature, but in the Attorney General's rulemaking. On June 23, 2026, the AG's office opened a pre-rulemaking public comment period on the rules that will implement both the new ADMT Act and the new Chatbot Safety Act, with comments due July 13. Here is what was at stake, why small business voices are usually missing from this process, and how to submit a comment that actually gets read.

Wait — didn't the legislature already write the law?

It wrote the skeleton. SB 26-189 says deployers of AI that “materially influences” a consequential decision owe notices, human review, and records. But the statute deliberately hands the hard definitional work to the Colorado Attorney General, who must adopt implementing rules by January 1, 2027 — the same day the law takes effect. Those rules will decide questions like:

• What “materially influence” means. This is the whole ballgame. A narrow definition means only AI that effectively makes the decision is covered; a broad one could sweep in any tool that scores, ranks, or flags. Whether your résumé screener, underwriting assistant, or tenant-scoring tool is covered ADMT will largely be decided here, including through presumptions and worked examples the AG is directed to provide.
• What the adverse-outcome notice must contain. The statute requires a notice within 30 days when covered ADMT contributes to a decision against someone. The rules will spell out what that notice says, sector by sector, and how it interacts with existing notice laws (like adverse-action notices in lending and hiring).
• How the Chatbot Safety Act works in practice. The same rulemaking covers HB 26-1263, Colorado's new chatbot law — including what counts as reasonable age estimation and what the annual reports to the AG must include.

The timeline

• June 23, 2026— the AG's office opened pre-rulemaking and began accepting written public comments through an online form at coag.gov/ai.
• July 13, 2026 — the pre-rulemaking comment window closed.
• August 11, 2026— the AG filed the proposed ADMT & Chatbot Safety Rules (4 CCR 904-6), opening a formal comment window through October 26, 2026, with a rulemaking hearing that same day. Our guide to the proposed rules covers this phase.
• January 1, 2027 — final rules due; the ADMT Act and the chatbot duties take effect.

There is a second reason these rules matter: the federal court in xAI v. Weiser — the case that has enforcement of Colorado's AI law paused — set the final rules as a trigger. Once the AG issues them (or the legislature replaces the law again), xAI has 28 days to renew its constitutional challenge. The rules will not just define your obligations; they will restart the fight over whether the law survives.

Why your comment matters more than you think

Rulemaking comment files are dominated by two groups: large companies with regulatory counsel, and advocacy organizations. The businesses that will feel these rules most acutely — the 12-person company whose hiring software quietly ranks applicants, the lender whose loan-origination system has an AI module it never asked for — are almost never in the record. Regulators write rules against the fact patterns they are shown. If small business fact patterns are not in the file, the rules will be calibrated to enterprises, and the compliance burden will be too.

How to write a comment that gets used

1. Say who you are and what you run. Industry, headcount, and the AI tools you actually use. Specificity is credibility.
2. Describe one real workflow.“Our applicant tracking system scores résumés before a human sees them; a human makes every final call” is worth more than ten paragraphs of opinion. Then say what you need to know: does that score “materially influence” the decision?
3. Ask for examples and presumptions. The statute directs the AG to consider illustrative examples. Ask for ones at small-business scale — not just the Fortune 500 hiring pipeline.
4. Flag double-notice problems. If you already send adverse-action notices under lending or employment law, ask the AG to harmonize the new 30-day notice with the ones you send today.
5. Keep it to two pages. During the pre-rulemaking phase, comments went through the form at coag.gov/ai. The same advice holds for the formal window now open — the current portal and deadlines are here.

Frequently asked questions

What is the deadline to comment on Colorado's AI rules?

The pre-rulemaking window (June 23 through July 13, 2026) has closed. The Attorney General filed proposed rules (4 CCR 904-6) on August 11, 2026, and formal written comments are open through October 26, 2026 at 11:59 PM via the portal at comments.coag.gov, ahead of the October 26 rulemaking hearing. Final rules take effect January 1, 2027.

What does “materially influence” mean under SB 26-189?

The statute does not fully define it — that is the point of the rulemaking. It is the threshold that decides whether AI involved in a consequential decision (hiring, lending, residential real estate, insurance, healthcare, education, government services) makes you a covered deployer. The AG's proposed rules, filed August 11, 2026, add clarifying detail, but they are not final until the rulemaking concludes.

Do the rules cover chatbots too?

Yes. The same rulemaking covers the Chatbot Safety Act (HB 26-1263), which takes effect January 1, 2027 and imposes disclosure, self-harm protocol, minor-protection, and annual reporting duties on operators of conversational AI services.

Will commenting put my business on the AG's radar?

Comments are public records, but describing your use of AI in a comment is not a confession — using AI is legal, and enforcement of the current act is paused anyway. If you would rather raise a sensitive fact pattern anonymously or through counsel, an attorney can frame and file it for you.

The bottom line

Between now and January 1, the most important Colorado AI document is not the statute — it is the rule the AG writes under it. The pre-rulemaking say ended July 13, but the formal comment window on the proposed rules runs through October 26, 2026. Use it, or accept rules written around somebody else's business.

Want help figuring out whether you are covered before you comment? Run the free AI Act readiness checker, or have us draft your comment as an attorney task on any subscription plan.