AI Tools and Labor Law: Legal Guardrails and Looming Minefields

How is AI finding its way into the legal arena of labor and employment law, and how well do you understand this emerging field and the potential perils? Guests Nina T. Pirrotti and Daniel A. Schwartz are both experienced labor and employment attorneys who have encountered AI in the scope of their work and are sorting through the federal legal vacuum and emerging state laws. What they’ve found are AI programs that take inputs, analyze them, and provide recommendations in employment and labor relations. This can include scanning resumes, drafting job descriptions, performance reviews, summarizing documents, and even sending rejection letters. Are computers replacing human judgment? And it’s not just employers using AI. Job seekers are learning to use AI to create resumes and cover letters that match job descriptions, even burying coding inside applications designed to convince the AI screener to select them for an interview. “It truly is an AI arms race,” Pirrotti says. Job seekers use AI to flood the market with applications, and employers are so overwhelmed they use AI to screen them. But AI isn’t perfect. In a drive for efficiency, AI has the potential to discriminate against people who may be qualified but have a disability, be neurodivergent, or simply not meet the “norms” a program has been trained to see. There are legal minefields (and potential liabilities) out there. Is there a class action suit just itching to be filed?   REFERENCES MENTIONED:  “Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964” “Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, and Disability Discrimination in Hiring,” U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division “Griggs v. Duke Power Co.” Wikipedia “Derek Mobley v. Workday Inc.,” Findlaw “Connecticut’s AI Responsibility and Transparency Act: Key Impacts on the Workplace,” Shipman & Goodwin  “Automated Employment Decision Tools (AEDT),” New York City government “The Harper v. Sirius XM Lawsuit: What the US Legal Case Means for UK and EU Organizations” Hair.Ventures  The ABA Labor and Employment Law Section 2026 Annual Conference is scheduled for Nov. 4-7, 2026 in Washington, DC