By Max Scheinblum | Business Den
Feb. 1, 2026, could be the turning point for Colorado’s tech economy.
That’s when SB205, a bill Gov. Jared Polis signed into law last May, goes into effect. The Consumer Protections for Artificial Intelligence legislation aims to proactively prevent consumer harm by regulating the use of “high-risk” artificial intelligence in “consequential decisions.”
Those decisions include anything from school admissions to job applications to bank loans and insurance claims where AI systems help decide outcomes. The language of the law includes both the developers of the software and deployers of it, such as schools, city governments or businesses with over 50 employees.
Leaders within the tech industry and outside of it, including some of the state’s leading educational institutions, hope the day never comes. They argue the language is too broad and could prove costly for any business that hires.
“It makes us look like we don’t get it,” said Bryan Leach, CEO of the Denver-based couponing app Ibotta. “We don’t get the importance of AI to unlocking job creation in the future. We think of AI as a job threat instead of a job creator.”