Local Law 144 gets talked about like a New York quirk. It isn't. It's the first fully enforced bias-audit law for AI hiring tools in the U.S., and it's the template every subsequent state law — Illinois, Colorado, New Jersey — is building from. If you work anywhere near HR tech, recruiting ops, or compliance, this is the law to actually understand, not skim.
The mechanics are simple to state and easy to get wrong in practice. If you use an automated tool — resume screening software, an AI-driven candidate ranking system, video-interview scoring — to substantially assist or replace a hiring decision for a role based in NYC, you need three things: an independent bias audit completed within the prior year, a public summary of that audit posted on your website, and advance notice to candidates at least ten business days before the tool is used.
The part employers consistently miss: jurisdiction is based on where the job is, not where the company is headquartered. A fully remote company outside New York can still be covered if it's hiring for a role a New York-based candidate fills. "We're not an NYC company" is not a defense.
The other common gap is treating the audit as a one-time checkbox. Bias audits are a snapshot — model drift and shifting applicant pools mean last year's clean audit doesn't guarantee this year's is clean too. Enforcement has also been tightening; a late-2025 city comptroller review found the agency's oversight had been inconsistent, which typically precedes stricter enforcement, not looser.
If you're building or buying an AEDT and want the plain-English rundown of what's actually required, this explainer covers the audit requirements, the notice obligations, and where employers most often get caught out.
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