Our interpretation
Coverage (§ 22625)
- Confirm whether national gross annual revenue exceeds $500,000,000.
- Identify customers whose account address is in California.
- Map which offerings are paid services versus free services.
- Document your regular business hours for customer service.
Our interpretation
Disclosure (§ 22626)
- Make sure no script, persona, or prompt represents a chatbot as human.
- Where a reasonable person could be misled, add a clear and conspicuous disclosure that the chatbot is artificially generated and not human.
- Deliver the disclosure in the medium in which the chatbot interacts with the customer (§ 22626(c)).
Our interpretation
Human access (§ 22627)
- On every customer service platform, including chatbot and phone, offer a simple way to request an agent during at least regular business hours.
- Recognize commonly understood commands, prompts, menu selections, and verbal requests.
- Design for a good-faith effort to connect within 15 minutes, or to offer a specific appointment within one business day (§ 22627(b)(1)).
- Monitor hold time against the good-faith limits: no more than 15 minutes at any time after connection, and no more than one hour cumulative across hold, wait, and escalation queues (§ 22627(c)).
- If you serve California through online platforms and have phone support, post the customer service phone number clearly and conspicuously on your website (§ 22627(d)).
Our interpretation
Good faith, outages, and exemptions (§ 22628)
- Write down the commercially reasonable and practicable standards you use to achieve compliance.
- Document how you handle emergencies, grid events, power shutoffs, and IT or telecom outages.
- Review whether any exemption applies to a line of business, checking each exemption's exact conditions (§ 22628(g)).
- Confirm your approach with counsel before AB 1609 takes effect on January 1, 2027 (Cal. Const., art. IV, § 8(c)(1)).