Techné AI
When AI makes the decision, someone still answers for it.
In Illinois, since 1 January 2026, that someone answers under a strict-liability standard — and answers again in California, New York, Colorado, and the European Union as operations reach them. Techné AI is an independent advisory practice for the HR, legal, compliance, and risk functions that own AI deployment, and for the boards to whom they answer. The work begins with the problem — where an organization stands today, and where the law and the technology are taking it — and ends in a documented compliance posture: the record regulators, plaintiffs, vendors, and underwriters eventually ask to see.
Khullani M.
Abdullahi, JD
Founder & Principal Advisor
I built Techné AI as an independent practice where AI governance meets fiduciary duty and regulatory exposure. I wrote the AI Governance & D&O Liability briefing that now circulates among directors, officers, their broker partners, and the underwriters who serve them. I testified before the Illinois Senate's Executive Subcommittee on AI and Social Media; one recommendation from that testimony became an AI-risk impact study bill. And I host AI in Chicago, where I talk with the researchers, founders, and policymakers shaping the field.
The regulatory map.
Five regimes are now live for any Illinois-headquartered organization of meaningful size. Select one to read it.
Illinois HB 3773 took effect on 1 January 2026. Its employment provisions impose strict liability — intent is not a defense — and its bar on using ZIP codes as a proxy for protected classes closes a familiar workaround. The Department of Human Rights is finalizing the implementing rules now.
Open the Illinois AI Legislative EcosystemThe WOPR Act (HB 1806, Public Act 104-0054) has been in force since 1 August 2025. It limits AI in therapeutic and behavioral-health workflows, requires a licensed professional to oversee AI-assisted clinical decisions, and forbids advertising an AI product as therapy where no licensed professional stands in the loop. Penalties run to $10,000 a violation.
Read about the WOPR Act Review engagementCalifornia reaches further still. Its ADMT regulations under the CCPA and CPRA, together with SB 53, SB 942, and AB 2013, apply to any company with California operations or California consumers. New York City's Local Law 144 has been enforced since 2023. Colorado's AI Act took effect in February 2026.
Read about the Multi-Jurisdictional ReviewThe EU AI Act's high-risk obligations apply on 2 August 2026, with a possible deferral to 2 December 2027 under the Digital Omnibus. The deferral changes the calendar, not the substance: the duties of Articles 9 through 17 — risk management, data governance, technical documentation, human oversight, accuracy and robustness, quality management — stand either way.
Read about the Multi-Jurisdictional ReviewRun against each statute separately, these become five compliance programs. Run together, they become one: a single control catalog that answers the overlapping obligations at once, and a documentation set that reads coherently to the functions that consume it — legal, compliance, privacy, risk — and to the counterparties they answer to. The unified posture is the more defensible one.
Read about the Multi-Jurisdictional ReviewHow the work begins.
Before the statutes, the problem. Every engagement starts by drawing two pictures: where an organization stands today — the AI it runs, the exposure it carries, the gaps it has not yet named — and where it needs to stand as the law and the technology move. The distance between the two is the work.
That distance keeps changing. The field moves faster than any single statute, and a posture that was defensible in January may not be by June. So the practice is built to stay close to a small number of companies and keep their footing current — not to deliver a report and leave.
Engagements.
- 01
AI Compliance Diagnostic
Productized · two weeks · fixed fee
A two-week read on where an organization stands: the AI it runs, the statutes and frameworks that reach it, and three actions the legal or compliance function can take this quarter. The most common way into the practice.
- 02
HB 3773 HR Workshop
Productized · half day · groups of 3–12
A half-day working session for the HR teams that carry HB 3773. The room leaves with an AI inventory, a vendor diligence packet, notice templates, a 90-day plan, and a board-ready memo. The fastest paid path to a documented HB 3773 posture.
- 03
HB 3773 Employment AI Review
Illinois · 3–4 weeks
A documented record of employment-AI use, measured against the amended Illinois Human Rights Act: vendor inventory, strict-liability risk assessment, notice templates aligned to IDHR rulemaking, and a compliance-posture memo built for the file and for whatever committee owns AI oversight.
- 04
WOPR Act Review
Illinois behavioral health · 4–6 weeks
Permitted-use mapping for AI across clinical and clinical-adjacent workflows, the licensed-professional oversight the statute requires, and a review of advertising, intake, and consent materials against the Act's limits on AI held out as therapy.
- 05
Multi-Jurisdictional Review
US + EU · 8–12 weeks
One control catalog across Illinois, California, New York, Colorado, and the EU AI Act — with the EU classification analysis, the conformity-assessment pathway, a unified vendor due-diligence framework, and a separate executive summary written for the D&O underwriting conversation.
- 06
Board & Committee Briefings
Half or full day
A working session for boards, audit committees, and risk committees: the AI regulatory landscape, the Caremark duty as it applies to AI oversight, and the documentation that supports a director's duty of care under current Delaware law.
- 07
Standing AI Compliance Advisor
Retainer · six-month minimum
A named advisor across the year's regulatory and operational cadence: monthly horizon briefings, quarterly reviews, incident-response support, and a steady hand through the D&O renewal.
The published record.
Formal testimony, published briefings, and tools practitioners across Illinois consult.
- 01
Illinois AI Legislative Ecosystem
Open the tracker
A live tracker of every AI-related bill, enacted statute, and regulatory move shaping Illinois AI policy. Maintained by Techné AI; consulted by general counsel, compliance officers, and policy researchers.
- 02
AI Governance & D&O Liability
Request the briefing
A briefing for directors, officers, and the advisors who serve them on where AI deployment meets fiduciary duty and D&O liability. In circulation among practitioners and underwriters.
- 03
Senate testimony
Read the testimony
Written testimony to the Illinois Senate's Executive Subcommittee on AI and Social Media on consolidating the state's frontier-AI safety bills. One recommendation from it became an AI-risk impact study bill.
- 04
AI Hiring Vendor Questionnaire
Access in the community
A twelve-question diligence template aligned to HB 3773 and the IDHR's draft notice rules, built for HR teams vetting every AI tool in the hiring and performance stack. Available to TalentSight Community members.
The practice.
Independent. Anchored in Illinois.
Techné AI is an independent advisory practice. It does not sell software, integrate AI systems, place insurance, or take commissions. It stands apart from the technology vendors, the audit firms, and the law firms — and that separation is what lets its review work be relied on by internal counsel, by compliance and risk, and by the counterparties they answer to.
Every engagement rests on published methodology: the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, ISO/IEC 42001, the SaferAI Frontier AI Risk Management Framework, and the proportionality and tiered-assurance literature now taking shape in the field. Each one delivers a documented compliance posture, a workpaper file, and a written report that names its methods and its sources.
Where a client requires formal third-party attestation, Techné AI makes referrals to licensed CPA firms and accredited certification bodies. The firm is itself implementing an ISO/IEC 42001 AI management system, with certification targeted for 2026–2027.
The practice is anchored in Illinois, where its authority was built — the legislative tracker, the Senate testimony, the AI Governance & D&O Liability briefing in circulation — and it follows clients into the jurisdictions their operations require: California, New York, Colorado, and the European Union.
- Full disclosure of independence
- NIST AI RMF
- ISO/IEC 42001
- SaferAI Frontier Framework
- Illinois AI Legislative Ecosystem ↗
Where to start.
For HR leaders and the colleagues who own AI in employment, the first step is the HR Leader's Operating Playbook: vendor evaluation by HR-system type, notice drafting, talking points for the executive team, and a 90-day compliance calendar. For those who would rather work the problem alongside their peers, the TalentSight Community is the membership path — a private practice community for HR leaders working through HB 3773 together. And when the timeline is shorter than the reading, the half-day HB 3773 HR Workshop is the productized engagement that ends with an inventory, a 90-day plan, and notice templates aligned to IDHR rulemaking.