Topic

Employment, Liability, and Consumers

What happens when AI influences decisions about people, speaks to customers or gets something wrong.

Law checked through

Short Answer

Using AI in a decision does not change who is responsible for it. Employers remain liable under Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA and Texas Labor Code chapter 21 for discriminatory selection procedures, including tools a vendor designed. The EEOC's AI employment resources, including its Artificial Intelligence and the ADA page, remain published; Executive Order 14281 instead directed federal agencies to deprioritize disparate-impact enforcement. The statutes and private lawsuits remain. TRAIGA adds a narrow prohibition on AI developed or deployed with intent to discriminate and says disparate impact alone does not show that intent. Businesses that let AI speak to customers are bound by the DTPA, the FTC Act and the TCPA, which treats AI-generated voices as artificial voices. When AI output causes harm, ordinary negligence, misrepresentation, products liability and contract law decide who pays, and Texas allocates fault among those responsible. Insurers and lenders have sector rules on top, including a new Texas limit on automated adverse determinations in utilization review and a June 2026 Department of Insurance bulletin. Pricing tools that pool competitors’ data raise antitrust risk.

Key Authorities

Texas AI-specific

Business and Commerce Code § 552.052, Business and Commerce Code § 552.056 and Business and Commerce Code § 552.057; Insurance Code § 4201.156.

Generally applicable Texas law

Labor Code chapter 21; DTPA; Civil Practice and Remedies Code chapters 33 and 82; Texas Free Enterprise and Antitrust Act, Business and Commerce Code chapter 15; Insurance Code chapters 541 and 542.

Federal

Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2; ADA; ADEA; FCRA; ECOA and Regulation B; FTC Act; TCPA; Sherman Act sec. 1.

Guides

AI in Employment Decisions

What changes when AI ranks applicants, screens interviews or evaluates employees, and what does not.

Who Is Responsible When AI Gets It Wrong

When an AI output causes harm, ordinary Texas law decides who pays.

AI in Customer Communications

What governs what an AI says to customers, how it contacts them, and how a business describes its AI.

AI in Insurance and Financial Services

Sector rules for AI in underwriting, claims, utilization review and credit decisions in Texas.

Chatbots and AI Companions

The Texas prohibitions, enforcement activity and litigation that apply to conversational AI, especially when users are vulnerable.

Algorithmic Pricing and Antitrust

When pricing software that draws on competitors’ data becomes an agreement in restraint of trade.

Insights

Federal AI Hiring Priorities Changed; Title VII Still Applies

Executive Order 14281 changes federal enforcement priorities without removing Title VII’s disparate-impact provision.

TDI Bulletin B-0003-26 on Insurers’ Use of AI

The Texas Department of Insurance expects human review of consequential AI-supported decisions and governance of AI systems.

The FTC’s Proposed Policy Statement on AI Accuracy

The FTC proposed a statement on how Section 5 applies to suppressing accuracy in AI systems, with implications for state laws.