California says AI can't be the only one who fires you
Governor Newsom signed SB 947 and a set of workplace AI bills. If you have staff in California, a person has to stand behind discipline and firing decisions.
On September 30, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a set of workplace AI bills. The headline one, SB 947, means an employer in California can’t let an AI system alone decide to discipline or fire someone.
What was signed
- SB 947(Senator Jerry McNerney), “Employment: automated decision systems.” In the governor’s words, it ensures real people review automated employment actions by prohibiting employers from only relying on AI when making a disciplinary action or termination decision.
- The package also requires employers to disclose when a mass layoff, relocation, or termination is caused by an AI system.
- Newsom vetoed an earlier version of this idea, SB 7, in October 2025. This version got through.
- The same day he signed bills on AI in health care, updates to the California AI Transparency Act, and digital replicas of people.
What it means for you
- If you have employees in California: any tool that scores, schedules, or flags workers needs a person who reviews its output before discipline or firing. Ask your employment lawyer when the rules take effect and what notice you owe.
- Everywhere else: treat this as a preview. California rules tend to get copied, and it is easier to build the human review in now than to add it later.
Our take
This is how we already build. An agent can draft, sort, flag, and recommend, but a decision that changes someone’s job belongs to a named person who can explain it. The law is catching up to what good practice was anyway. The real cost for small businesses is the patchwork: a different rule in every state you have staff in.
Sources
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