Colorado's New AI Chatbot Law: What HB 26-1263 Means for Businesses

Colorado quietly became the first state in the country to pass a law specifically regulating AI chatbots. House Bill 26-1263 — the Chatbot Safety Act — was signed May 29, 2026, and its duties kick in January 1, 2027. Most of the headlines are about protecting minors, and rightly so. But two pieces of this law matter to ordinary businesses: who counts as a chatbot “operator,” and a prohibition on marketing your bot as the equivalent of a licensed professional. Here is the plain-language version.

What the law covers

HB 26-1263 regulates “conversational artificial intelligence services” — AI systems accessible to the general public that primarily simulate human conversation through adaptive text, visual, or audio communication. Think companion apps, general-purpose chat assistants, and character bots: software whose product is the conversation.

Beginning January 1, 2027, operators of these services must:

• Disclose that the AI is AI. Users must be told they are talking to artificial intelligence, not a human.
• Run a self-harm protocol. Operators need a real, documented protocol for responding when users express suicidal ideation or self-harm.
• Estimate user age and protect minors. Using commercially reasonable methods, operators must estimate age and, for minors, block sexually explicit content, avoid design that fosters simulated emotional dependence, skip engagement-bait rewards, and provide privacy and account-management tools.
• Report annually to the Attorney General on their protocols and safeguards.
• Never claim the bot is a licensed professional.An operator may not state that the chatbot's output is provided by, endorsed by, or equivalent to the services of a licensed or certified professional — a lawyer, doctor, therapist, accountant, and so on.

The question that decides everything: are you an “operator”?

Here is the part that matters for the average business owner reading this with a support chatbot on their website: the act targets entities that develop and make publicly availablea conversational AI service. A plumbing company that embeds a vendor's customer-service widget is in a very different position from the company that built the chatbot product. Most small businesses using an off-the-shelf chatbot are likely customers of an operator, not operators themselves — though where exactly the line falls (heavily customized bots, white-labeled bots, bots trained on your data) is one of the things the Attorney General's rulemaking should clarify.

Even if you are not an operator, do these three things

• Ask your chatbot vendor the compliance question. Will the widget disclose it is AI? Does the vendor have a self-harm protocol and minor safeguards? Get it in writing — ideally in the contract, alongside the other AI vendor clauses you are probably missing.
• Audit your marketing copy.The licensed-professional prohibition is about how the bot is presented. If your website says the chatbot gives “expert legal answers,” “medical advice,” or “your AI therapist,” fix that language now — it is also the kind of claim that invites consumer-protection trouble under existing law, chatbot act or not.
• Label the bot.Whatever the statute ultimately requires of you, “you are chatting with an AI assistant” is free, honest, and builds trust. There is no scenario where clear disclosure hurts you.

How we handle this ourselves

Available Law runs a public-facing AI assistant — Ava — so this law is not hypothetical for us. Ava is labeled as an AI assistant, does not give legal advice, and everything she drafts for clients is reviewed by a licensed Colorado attorney before it goes anywhere. That last part is the design principle behind the statute's licensed-professional rule: the line between “AI that helps a professional serve you” and “AI pretending to be the professional” is exactly the line Colorado just drew. We wrote about that line long before this law in AI business consulting vs. AI legal counsel.

How this fits the bigger 2026–2027 picture

The Chatbot Safety Act is one of three moving pieces in Colorado right now: the original AI Act is technically in effect with enforcement paused, the replacement ADMT Act takes over January 1, 2027, and the chatbot duties arrive the same day. If your business both uses AI in decisions (hiring, lending, housing) and runs a public chatbot, you have two sets of duties landing on the same date — which is a reason to consolidate the work into one AI-governance effort, not two scrambles.

Frequently asked questions

What is Colorado's new chatbot law?

HB 26-1263, the Chatbot Safety Act, signed May 29, 2026 and effective January 1, 2027. It requires operators of public conversational AI services to disclose that the AI is AI, run a self-harm response protocol, estimate user age and protect minors, report annually to the Attorney General, and never present the bot as equivalent to a licensed professional.

Does the chatbot law apply to the support widget on my website?

Probably not directly — the act targets those who develop and make publicly available a conversational AI service, and it is aimed at systems that primarily simulate human conversation. A business embedding a vendor's support bot is likely the operator's customer, not the operator. But the boundary will be sharpened in rulemaking, and you should confirm your vendor complies either way.

Can I market my chatbot as an “AI lawyer” or “AI doctor”?

Colorado's chatbot act prohibits operators from stating that a bot's output is provided by, endorsed by, or equivalent to a licensed or certified professional's services. Even outside the act, that kind of claim risks consumer-protection and unauthorized-practice problems. Present AI as a tool that supports professionals, not as the professional.

When do the chatbot rules take effect?

The operator duties apply beginning January 1, 2027 — the same day as Colorado's ADMT Act. The Attorney General's implementing rulemaking is underway now, with a public comment window through July 13, 2026.

The bottom line

Colorado just wrote the country's first chatbot rulebook. If you build conversational AI, your compliance clock is running. If you just use it, your job is smaller but real: verify your vendor, fix your marketing language, and label the bot. All of it is easier now than after January 1.

Want an attorney to look at your chatbot setup or vendor contract? It is one attorney task on any Available Law plan — or start with the free AI Act readiness checker to map your overall exposure.