The Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act took effect on January 1, 2026, and companies operating in the state are now working through its first full year of compliance. Texas became the second state after Colorado to pass a broad artificial intelligence statute, and the law reaches beyond firms headquartered there.
The Act applies to developers and deployers that advertise or conduct business in Texas, that build products used by Texas residents, or that develop or deploy AI systems inside the state. That scope pulls in national enterprises with Texas customers even when their engineering teams sit elsewhere. The statute works through categorical prohibitions. It bars systems built for behavioral manipulation, unlawful discrimination, production or distribution of child sexual abuse material and unlawful deepfakes, and infringement of constitutional rights.
Neighboring states have taken narrower approaches. Tennessee passed the ELVIS Act, effective July 2024, which protects voice and likeness from unauthorized AI cloning, and added Senate Bill 1580, effective July 2026, which prohibits marketing an AI system as a qualified mental health professional. The result is a patchwork where a single deployment can touch a comprehensive statute in one state and a use case specific rule in the next.
Enterprise adoption has continued through the regulatory change. Salesforce reported that the average number of AI agents deployed per organization moved from five in early 2025 to 13 by April 2026, with agent creation time down 53 percent and employee sessions tripling. Retail, travel, financial services and public sector deployments showed the sharpest increases.
Source: Norton Rose Fulbright - https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en/knowledge/publications/c6c60e0c/the-texas-responsible-ai-governance-act