Critical decision
Decision with legal, material, or significant effects (e.g., housing, employment).
Definitions (3)
Decisions that have legal, material, or similarly significant effects on individuals, with enumerated categories including education, employment, essential utilities, family planning, financial services, healthcare, housing, and legal services; such decisions trigger obligations under the Act when automated systems are involved.
A decision that affects access to, cost of, terms of, or availability of services in specified domains (for example, housing, employment, healthcare, education, utilities, financial services), and that can have legal, material, or similarly significant effects on consumers. Decisions meeting this definition are subject to pre-deployment assessment, monitoring, and transparency obligations under the bill.
A decision produced by an AI system that significantly affects an individual's rights, access to essential services, or other major public-interest outcomes, and therefore requires stronger controls, human-in-the-loop safeguards, and heightened oversight.
Related Terms
Consequential decisions
Decisions materially affecting individuals' rights or access to services....
Consequential Decision
Decision materially affecting consumer access to essential services....
Augmented critical decision process
Process using an automated decision system for critical decisions....
critical decisions
High-risk subset of significant decisions with severe consequences....
High-risk artificial intelligence system
An AI system that substantially factors in consequential decisions....