HR 7985
CHATBOT Act
TL;DR
Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-CA) introduced the CHATBOT Act to require companies deploying AI chatbots to clearly disclose to users that they're interacting with a machine, not a human. The bill lands in the House Energy and Commerce Committee and would create federal disclosure standards for consumer-facing chatbots across industries.
How This Might Impact Your Business
Companies using customer-facing AI chatbots (retail support, banking assistants, healthcare intake bots) would need to add clear, upfront disclosures that users are talking to a machine.
Industries relying heavily on conversational AI, including e-commerce, financial services, telecom, and healthcare, face the most direct impact on their customer service workflows.
Compliance likely means updating chatbot scripts, UI design, and onboarding flows so disclosures appear before any substantive interaction.
Marketing and sales teams using AI voice agents or SMS bots would need to review outbound communications for disclosure compliance.
Enforcement would likely fall under the FTC, meaning violations could trigger federal deceptive practices investigations and fines.
The bill is still in committee, so specific penalty amounts, small business carve-outs, and effective dates are not yet finalized.
Vendors selling white-label chatbot platforms should expect enterprise customers to demand built-in disclosure features as a contract requirement.
What Should You Do
Inventory every customer-facing chatbot, voice agent, and AI assistant your company deploys, including third-party tools embedded in your website or app.
Ask your legal and UX teams to draft a standard AI disclosure statement and test placement options that satisfy likely FTC-style requirements.
Review vendor contracts with chatbot providers (Intercom, Drift, Salesforce Einstein, custom LLM integrations) to confirm who owns disclosure compliance.
Assign someone to track HR 7985 through the Energy and Commerce Committee and flag any markup sessions or amendments.
Benchmark against California's existing bot disclosure law (SB 1001), which offers a preview of what federal rules may look like.
Who It Affects
Sponsors
Status Timeline
committee
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
March 18, 2026