Illinois AI Video Interview Act.

Overview

The Illinois Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act (AIVIRA), signed into law on August 9, 2019 and effective January 1, 2020, was the first US law specifically regulating the use of artificial intelligence in employment video interviews. The law responded to the rapid adoption of AI video screening tools — platforms that analyze candidates' facial expressions, word choices, tone, and other characteristics to score "job fit."

AIVIRA establishes three core obligations for employers that use AI to analyze applicant video interviews, plus a deletion right and — since 2022 — a demographic-reporting mandate for a narrower set of employers:

1. Notify applicants before the interview that AI may be used
2. Explain how the AI works and what general types of characteristics it uses to evaluate applicants
3. Obtain consent before using AI analysis
4. Delete video recordings within 30 days of an applicant's request
5. Report applicant demographic data to the state — but only for employers that rely solely on AI to decide who gets an in-person interview (see Demographic Data Reporting)

The law applies to any employer — of any size, industry, or location — that asks Illinois applicants to record video interviews and uses AI to analyze those videos.

One thing AIVIRA does not do is create penalties or a lawsuit pathway. The statute is silent on enforcement (see Enforcement & Penalties). Employers should not read AIVIRA in isolation: a separate, broader Illinois law — the 2026 amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act (HB 3773 / Public Act 103-0804), effective January 1, 2026 — now regulates AI across employment decisions and does carry enforcement teeth (see The 2026 IHRA AI Amendments).

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Who It Applies To

Employers

Any employer that:

• Asks an applicant to record a video interview, and
• Uses AI to analyze the content of those videos when considering the applicant for a position based in Illinois

The law does not require the employer to be based in Illinois. What matters is the position being interviewed for and the use of AI to analyze the recorded video.

No Size or Industry Threshold

There is no revenue minimum, employee count requirement, or industry carve-out. A startup using a commercial AI interview analysis platform must comply just as a Fortune 500 employer must.

Staffing Agencies and Vendors

Third-party staffing agencies and HR technology vendors that analyze video interviews on behalf of employers are practically bound by the Act's sharing and deletion provisions, because the employer must control how recordings are distributed and destroyed.

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Core Requirements

1. Pre-Interview Notification

Before asking an applicant to submit a video interview that may be analyzed by AI, the employer must notify the applicant:

• That artificial intelligence may be used to analyze the applicant's video interview, and
• That AI may consider the applicant's fitness for the position

This notification must be provided before the interview — not after.

2. Information Explaining How the AI Works

The employer must provide each applicant with information before the interview explaining how the AI works and what general types of characteristics it uses to evaluate applicants. The statute does not require a vendor-specific technical disclosure, but the explanation must be meaningful enough for an applicant to understand the general method, for example:

• Verbal content and word choice
• Vocal tone and pacing
• Facial expression patterns

Employers should work with their AI vendors to obtain accurate descriptions of these characteristics for disclosure purposes.

3. Consent

Employers must obtain the applicant's consent to be evaluated by the AI program before using such analysis. The statute requires consent but does not prescribe a specific form. As a practical matter, employers typically document consent through:

• A checkbox in an online application or video interview platform
• A separate consent form (digital signature acceptable)
• An email confirmation from the applicant acknowledging the disclosure

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Consent Obligations

Form of Consent

AIVIRA requires the applicant's consent before AI analysis is used, following the pre-interview notice and explanation described above. While the Act does not mandate a particular format, employers should obtain and retain a clear, documented record of consent.

Withdrawal of Consent

The law does not explicitly address consent withdrawal. Employers relying on consent should implement a clear process for applicants who wish to withdraw consent and should document when consent was obtained.

If an Applicant Withholds Consent

The Act does not, on its face, prohibit employers from declining to interview applicants who refuse to consent to AI analysis. However, employers should consider whether such a policy could create disparate-impact liability under other employment-discrimination laws — including the 2026 amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act (see below).

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Restrictions on Sharing

Employers may not share applicant videos except with persons whose expertise or technology is necessary to evaluate an applicant's fitness for a position.

In practice, this covers two categories:

1. Persons with necessary expertise: Individuals whose expertise is needed to evaluate fitness for the position — such as a technical interviewer or department manager — may view the recording.

2. Technology providers: Service providers whose technology is necessary to host, process, or analyze the recordings may access them in order to provide that service.

What This Restricts

• Sharing video recordings with other employers or unrelated affiliates
• Providing videos to AI research teams for model training beyond what is necessary to evaluate the applicant
• Making videos accessible to any person whose expertise or technology is not necessary to evaluate fitness for the position

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Data Deletion Rights

On-Request Deletion — 30-Day Deadline

Upon an applicant's request, the employer must, within 30 days, delete the applicant's interviews and instruct any other persons who received copies of the videos to also delete them — including all electronically generated backup copies. Employers should ensure their vendor contracts include a corresponding deletion-on-request obligation so that the employer can satisfy this requirement within the 30-day window.

No Fixed Retention Limit Absent a Request

AIVIRA does not impose a specific maximum retention period in the absence of a deletion request. (Earlier readings of this page suggested a defined post-hiring destruction deadline; the statute does not set one.) Employers should nonetheless adopt a reasonable retention and deletion policy, both as a privacy best practice and to manage exposure under other Illinois laws.

Scope of Deletion

When an applicant requests deletion, the obligation reaches:

• The original video recording
• Any backup copies, including electronically generated ones
• Copies held by any other persons or vendors who received them

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Demographic Data Reporting

A material obligation that applies to a narrower group of employers was added to AIVIRA by Public Act 102-0047, effective January 1, 2022, as Section 20.

Who Must Report

An employer that relies solely upon an AI analysis of a video interview to determine whether an applicant will be selected for an in-person interview must collect and report demographic data. If a human reviewer also weighs in on the advance-to-in-person decision, this Section 20 reporting obligation is not triggered — though the notice, consent, sharing, and deletion duties above still apply.

What Must Be Reported

Covered employers must collect and report:

• The race and ethnicity of applicants who are and are not afforded the opportunity for an in-person interview after the use of AI analysis, and
• The race and ethnicity of applicants who are hired

To Whom, and By When

DCEO has published these annual analyses (for example, its 2022 and 2024 AI Video Interview Act demographic reports), confirming the reporting requirement is actively operative.

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Enforcement & Penalties

AIVIRA is silent on enforcement. The statute does not create a private right of action, does not designate an enforcing agency, and does not specify any penalties, damages, or remedies for a violation.

This is a well-documented gap. Authoritative analyses — from SHRM and law firms including Ogletree, Baker Sterchi, and Smith Gambrell Russell — uniformly note that the Act "does not prescribe any penalties for violating it" and "does not specify what types of remedies are available." There is no statutory injunctive relief, no statutory actual-damages provision, and no statutory attorneys'-fees provision in AIVIRA.

Note: An earlier version of this page described AIVIRA as creating a private right of action with injunctive relief, actual damages, and attorneys' fees. That was incorrect. No such remedies appear in 820 ILCS 42. A private right of action and damages for AI-driven employment discrimination do exist in Illinois — but they arise under the separate 2026 amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act (HB 3773 / Public Act 103-0804), not under AIVIRA. See the next section.

Practical Exposure

Even though AIVIRA itself carries no stated penalty, employers should not treat compliance as optional:

• The Section 20 demographic-reporting data is reviewed by DCEO and reported to the legislature, creating regulatory visibility into AI-driven screening outcomes.
• AI-driven hiring practices that produce discriminatory effects are now directly actionable under the amended Illinois Human Rights Act.
• Mishandling video recordings can implicate other Illinois privacy laws.

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The 2026 IHRA AI Amendments

For any Illinois AI-in-hiring program, AIVIRA is only half the picture as of 2026. HB 3773, enacted as Public Act 103-0804 and signed by Governor Pritzker on August 9, 2024, amended the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) and took effect January 1, 2026.

What It Does

The amendments make it a civil rights violation for a covered employer to:

• Use AI or automated decision-making in connection with recruitment, hiring, promotion, discipline, discharge, tenure, or the terms, privileges, or conditions of employment in a way that has a discriminatory effect on individuals based on a protected class, or
• Use zip code as a proxy for a protected class.

The law also requires employers to provide notice when AI is used in covered employment decisions.

Enforcement (Unlike AIVIRA)

These obligations are enforced through the Illinois Human Rights Act's existing machinery: an aggrieved person may file a charge with the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR), with proceedings before the Human Rights Commission and the possibility of a civil action and IHRA remedies. This is the enforcement pathway that AIVIRA lacks.

Rulemaking Status (June 2026)

IDHR proposed administrative rules (amending Title 44, Part 2520 of the Illinois Administrative Code) to implement the notice requirements, publishing them on May 15, 2026 with a comment period and a public hearing set for June 10, 2026. On June 2, 2026, IDHR temporarily withdrew the proposed rules and canceled the June 10 hearing, citing the need for continued collaboration with other state agencies. The statutory obligations remain in effect despite the rulemaking pause — only the implementing notice rules are on hold.

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Compliance Steps

1. Audit your video interview tools. Determine which platforms your company uses for video interviews and whether any of them use AI analysis (automated scoring, facial expression analysis, voice analysis, etc.).

2. Contact vendors for AI feature disclosure. Request documentation describing what general types of characteristics the AI uses to evaluate applicants. This supports the required applicant explanation.

3. Update your notice and consent workflow. Before any video interview where AI analysis may be used, implement a step that:

   • Notifies the applicant that AI may be used and may consider their fitness for the position
   • Provides information explaining how the AI works and what it evaluates
   • Collects the applicant's consent

4. Review data sharing contracts. Audit agreements with your video interview vendors to ensure recordings are shared only with persons whose expertise or technology is necessary, and that vendors will delete recordings on your instruction.

5. Implement a 30-day deletion process. Create a documented process for responding to applicant deletion requests within 30 days, including a mechanism to instruct vendors and others holding copies to delete them.

6. Determine whether Section 20 applies to you. If any hiring track relies solely on AI to decide who advances to an in-person interview, build a process to collect and report applicant race/ethnicity data to DCEO by December 31 each year. Consider whether keeping a human in that decision avoids triggering the reporting mandate.

7. Map your obligations under the amended Human Rights Act. Separately from AIVIRA, ensure AI used in any covered employment decision does not produce a discriminatory effect, does not use zip code as a proxy, and is accompanied by the required notice. This is the regime with real enforcement.

8. Document consent and notice records. Retain records of when notice was given and consent obtained from each applicant, in case of later dispute.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does AIVIRA apply to remote interviews? Yes. The law applies to recorded video interviews analyzed by AI for an Illinois position, regardless of the interview format or the employer's location.

What consent is required? Consent to be evaluated by the AI program, obtained after the applicant receives pre-interview notice and an explanation of how the AI works and what it evaluates.

Can employers share videos with hiring managers? Yes — sharing with persons whose expertise (or technology) is necessary to evaluate the applicant's fitness for the position is permitted.

How fast must employers delete videos on request? Within 30 days of the applicant's request, including instructing anyone else who received copies to delete them.

What penalties does AIVIRA impose? None are written into the Act. AIVIRA is silent on enforcement — no private right of action, no enforcing agency, and no specified penalties or remedies. Enforcement of AI-driven employment discrimination instead runs through the amended Illinois Human Rights Act.

Do some employers have to report data to the state? Yes. Employers that rely solely on AI to decide who advances to an in-person interview must report applicant race/ethnicity data to DCEO annually by December 31 under Section 20.

Does it cover asynchronous video interviews? Yes. "One-way" or asynchronous video interviews (where candidates record answers to pre-set questions that are later reviewed) are covered if AI is used to analyze the recording.

Is AIVIRA the only Illinois AI hiring law I need to follow? No. Since January 1, 2026, the Illinois Human Rights Act (as amended by HB 3773 / Public Act 103-0804) separately regulates AI in employment decisions, prohibits discriminatory effects and the use of zip code as a proxy, requires notice, and is enforced through IDHR and the Human Rights Commission.

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Official Sources

• AIVIRA full text — 820 ILCS 42 (Illinois General Assembly)
• 820 ILCS 42 — 2025 codification (Justia)
• SHRM — Illinois Employers Must Comply with the AI Video Interview Act
• Public Act 103-0804 (HB 3773) — Illinois General Assembly
• IDHR — Artificial Intelligence in Employment (Public Act 103-0804)
• DCEO — AI Video Interview Act Demographic Data Report (2024)