Amid the discussion of what did and did not get passed in the latest legislative session, one area of inaction has received little attention: Once again, Minnesota’s Legislature did not pass laws on AI in the workplace.

This silence stands in stark contrast to two trends. First, AI capacity is advancing at an unprecedented speed. AI is now so good that we are struggling to create exams hard enough to test it. As capacity increases, companies are racing to deploy these tools, and workers are feeling the consequences. Here in Minnesota, jobs are already being lost to AI, and every indicator suggests the pace of disruption is going to accelerate.

Second, as workers see this disruption, they are increasingly calling for lawmakers to step in. Eighty percent of Americans say the government should prioritize rules for AI safety. Seventy-one percent oppose AI making hiring decisions. Sixty-one percent say AI should not be used to track workers’ movements. Concerns about AI are no longer a topic for sci-fi thrillers; they represent the overwhelming, bipartisan, and urgent sentiment of the people Minnesota’s legislators were elected to represent.

Our research makes clear why that urgency is warranted. More than 800,000 Minnesotans, or nearly one-third of the state’s workforce, are in jobs where they are highly exposed to AI. That makes Minnesota’s workforce the most vulnerable in the Midwest and the tenth most vulnerable in the nation. Women and people in industries with lower union membership face disproportionately high exposure, leaving some of the most precarious workers with the fewest protections.

Job displacement is only part of the story, as AI reshapes work in ways that go far beyond whether someone keeps their position. Ask anyone who has recently applied for a job, and they can tell you about AI being used to screen their application, interview them and even decide if they get hired. Or ask someone who already has a job. They may tell you about AI tracking their keystrokes, analyzing their call times or setting their wages. These systems affect every Minnesota worker.

To be fair, the failure to provide new regulations does not fall equally on every member of the Legislature. Several lawmakers introduced bills this session aimed at addressing these very concerns. They deserve credit for their leadership, even if it was not rewarded with legislative victories.

What makes the legislature’s paralysis more damaging is a closing window. Last December, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to prevent states from regulating AI. Legal experts are skeptical this move will hold up, but the threat is real, and the clock is ticking. Where Minnesota remained passive, other states across the country, red and blue alike, surged ahead.

We have already seen what happens when the government waits for technology to police itself. For years, lawmakers watched social media platforms cause documented harm while debating whether and how to act. By the time serious regulation was on the table, the companies were too powerful and the damage too entrenched. AI is moving faster than social media ever did and can touch the lives of far more people. The same hesitation, applied here, will produce even worse results.

Minnesota’s elected officials have an opportunity to do something different this time. Working people are anxious about their jobs and are asking for basic protections. To ignore their calls is to favor a status quo that does more to benefit Big Tech billionaires than working Minnesotans.

The good news is that both employers and workers can win. Our goal should not be to stop AI development but to ensure that its benefits are broadly shared. The best way to get there is by making sure workers have a voice in how these technologies are implemented. Workers are the experts in their own jobs. When they have a seat at the table, AI is more likely to complement their work than replace it, rewarding employers and employees alike.

To bring that worker-centered approach into reality, the state should act on three priorities next session: addressing displacement by giving workers notice and support if AI takes their jobs; reining in digital surveillance by limiting how automated systems can monitor and score workers; and regulating AI’s role in consequential workplace decisions, such as hiring, firing and wages. These policies represent commonsense guardrails that an overwhelming majority of workers are already demanding.

With the speed of current AI advancement and the wealth concentration it creates, Minnesota workers cannot afford another session of delay. In 2027, they need a Legislature that meets the moment.

Dr. Manjeet Rege, Ph.D., is director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence at the University of St. Thomas, and Aaron Rosenthal is research director at North Star Policy Action.

This story was originally published by MinnPost.

Aaron Rosenthal

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