AB 1609 (Zbur D) Customer service Chatbots

Bill Watchlist,

AB 1609

(Zbur D)   Customer service chatbots.

 

Position: Watch

Introduced: 1/20/2026

 

Last Amend: 8/20/2026

 

Status: 8/24/2026-Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

 

Location: 8/24/2026-S. THIRD READING

 

Summary: Existing law prohibits a person from using a bot, as defined, to mislead another person about the bot’s artificial identity to incentivize the purchase or sale of goods or services, among other things. Existing law requires an operator of a companion chatbot, as defined, to provide a disclosure regarding the companion chatbot’s artificial identity if a reasonable person interacting with the companion chatbot would be misled to believe that the person is interacting with a human. This bill would prohibit a large private business, as defined, from representing that a customer service chatbot is a human. The bill would also require the large private business to provide certain disclosures if a reasonable person interacting with the chatbot would be misled to believe they are interacting with a human. This bill would require a large private business to provide a customer service feature allowing customers to contact a customer service agent during its regular business hours, as defined. This bill would require, except as specified, large private businesses to make a good faith effort to connect a customer to an agent within 15 minutes after a request for human customer service is made, or schedule an appointment with the customer, as specified.