Your customer has employment insurance. You are the one named.Founded by a software developer who runs an AI app.
We insure companies that build AI tools to screen, interview, schedule or evaluate workers, with technology E&O reviewed for discrimination wording, because an employer’s employment practices policy protects the employer and a vendor can now be named directly.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
The person placing your tech E&O runs an app with an AI coach of his own.
Kevin Kelsey
Founder | Principal Agent
Boring’s founder, Kevin Kelsey, owns and runs TrainRec, a fitness app with a built-in AI coach, and has placed insurance for AI apps. Insuring his own taught him how an underwriter reads a model. Personal guidance from an AI reads more like the work of a professional than like software, technology E&O forms commonly exclude bodily injury, and not every form will add it back. So whether your app answers money, health, hiring or farming questions, the gap between what it says and what the policy covers gets read by someone who has had to close it for his own product.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What HR tech businesses actually need.
Technology E&O reviewed for discrimination wording
Claims that your tool screened out or ranked applicants unfairly and a customer, or the applicants themselves, hold you responsible.
Without it — A software form may exclude discrimination or employment-related claims, and an employment form belongs to the employer. The claim can fall between the two, so read both for the word discrimination.
Employment practices liability
Wrongful termination, discrimination and harassment claims brought by your own employees. General liability specifically excludes these.
Without it — Employment practices liability (EPLI) pays an employer’s discrimination and wrongful-termination claims. If you also employ people, you need your own, and if you are a staffing or recruiting service your exposure is closer to the employer’s.
Cyber & tech E&O
Breach response, ransomware and the notification costs that follow. Technology errors and omissions sits on the same policy and covers the software or service itself failing a client, which is the half most tech companies find out about too late.
Without it — Resumes, assessments, interview recordings and sometimes biometric data are held by your platform. Breach response and privacy lawsuits are what cyber pays, and video interview tools draw their own state privacy claims.
Directors & officers
Protects the personal assets of the people running the company when they are sued over a management decision. It applies to private companies and nonprofit boards, not just public ones, which is a common and expensive misunderstanding.
Without it — An agency inquiry or a class action naming your leaders, or an investor asking about bias risk, is a claim against the company. Check whether regulatory response is paid, and what the policy says about AI.
Professional liability
Covers the advice, the drawing, the diagnosis. The work itself, rather than someone getting hurt on your premises.
Without it — If you give hiring recommendations that a person could be said to rely on, a professional form may be asked for beside tech E&O, because a recommendation reads more like advice than like software.
What the regulators actually wrote down.
In Mobley v. Workday a federal court in the Northern District of California, quoting its earlier order denying Workday’s motion to dismiss, noted the plaintiff alleges that Workday’s customers delegate traditional hiring functions, including rejecting applicants, to the algorithmic tools Workday provides, which are allegedly not simply implementing in a rote way the criteria employers set but participating in the decision-making process by recommending some candidates and rejecting others.
Mobley v. Workday, Inc., No. 3:23-cv-00770-RFL (N.D. Cal. May 16, 2025), Order Granting Preliminary Collective Certification, Dkt. 128 · checked 2026-11-01
In the same case the court drew a line on vendor liability under an agency theory, writing that where an applicant was scored, sorted or screened only on criteria the employer alone selected, Workday would be no different from an employer’s spreadsheet and would not be liable as an agent, so the exposure turns on whether the tool takes part in the decision.
Mobley v. Workday, Inc., No. 3:23-cv-00770-RFL (N.D. Cal. May 16, 2025), Order Granting Preliminary Collective Certification, Dkt. 128 · checked 2026-11-01
On May 16, 2025 that court granted preliminary certification of a collective action on the age discrimination claim, finding the plaintiff substantially alleged a unified policy, the use of Workday’s AI recommendation system to score, sort, rank or screen applicants; the step is preliminary, Workday can later ask the court to decertify, and the claims are allegations that Workday opposed.
Mobley v. Workday, Inc., No. 3:23-cv-00770-RFL (N.D. Cal. May 16, 2025), Order Granting Preliminary Collective Certification, Dkt. 128 · checked 2026-11-01
New York City’s Local Law 144 prohibits employers and employment agencies from using an automated employment decision tool without the required steps, including a bias audit within one year of use and public information about the audit, and notice that the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection says must be given 10 business days before use; enforcement began July 5, 2023.
New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Automated Employment Decision Tools · checked 2026-11-01
Illinois Public Act 103-0804 (HB 3773) adds subsection (L) to section 2-102 of the Illinois Human Rights Act, making it a civil rights violation for an employer to use artificial intelligence that has the effect of subjecting employees to discrimination on the basis of protected classes, to use zip codes as a proxy for protected classes, or to fail to give employees notice of such use, with the Department of Human Rights to write the rules; the Act takes effect January 1, 2026.
Illinois General Assembly, Public Act 103-0804 (HB 3773), amending 775 ILCS 5/2-102 · checked 2026-11-01
Colorado’s SB26-189, Automated Decision-Making Technology, signed May 14, 2026, repeals and reenacts the consumer protection provisions of SB24-205; it requires developers of covered technology used in consequential decisions, which include employment, to give deployers documentation of intended uses, training data categories, known limitations and instructions for human review starting January 1, 2027, and it sets how fault is shared between developers and deployers in civil discrimination claims under existing law without creating a new private right of action.
Colorado General Assembly, SB26-189, Automated Decision-Making Technology (Session Law Chapter 131, 2026) · checked 2026-11-01
The claims we actually see.
Ordered by how often we see them, not by how dramatic they are. Each one names the coverage that answers it — and the policy people wrongly assume already does.
Most common
Applicants say your screening tool rejected them because of age, race or disability
Covered by Technology E&O, if it does not exclude discrimination
Mobley v. Workday shows a vendor can be sued directly. An employer’s EPLI does not protect you, and your own software policy may exclude the claim.
Common
A customer says your tool failed its New York City bias audit or notice duty
Covered by Technology E&O, plus the customer contract’s indemnity
The city law binds the employer, so the customer passes the cost to you by contract. The cost of a bias audit is a compliance expense, and insurance seldom pays it.
Less common, severe
A state attorney general or agency asks how your model was tested
Covered by Directors and officers coverage, if it pays for regulatory response
Fines are commonly excluded, and response costs are only paid if the policy treats the inquiry as a claim. Many small-company forms pay only for suits.
Common
Interview recordings or candidate data are exposed or misused
Covered by Cyber, first-party response and privacy liability
Biometric and video claims under state laws can run beyond an ordinary breach. Check whether the policy covers regulatory defense and statutory damages.
Common
A scheduling or evaluation tool wrongly flags or drops a worker
Covered by Technology E&O
The employer is the one who fires or disciplines, and a wrongful-termination suit may add you if the tool made the call. Employer-side EPLI does not extend to you.
What our HR tech clients ask us.
What will the underwriter ask an HR tech company?
Whether the tool scores, ranks or rejects people, or only organizes them. Whether a human makes the final call. Which model you use and whether you run bias audits, who sees them, and how you handle the New York City, Illinois and Colorado rules. Your contracts and indemnities, customer count, revenue, states, prior claims, and what data you keep.
Which NAICS codes does this page cover?
Software and hosting codes are 513210 Software Publishers, 541511 Custom Computer Programming Services and 518210 Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services. HR codes include 541612 Human Resources Consulting Services, 541214 Payroll Services, 561311 Employment Placement Agencies, 561312 Executive Search Services and 561320 Temporary Help Services.
Doesn’t our customer’s EPLI cover a bias claim?
It covers the customer, the employer. EPLI is written for claims against an employer by its own workers and applicants. A software vendor is not the insured, so a claim against you lands on your own policies. The employer-side rules are in our guide on AI hiring laws and EPLI.
Can a software vendor really be sued over hiring discrimination?
In Mobley v. Workday the plaintiff alleges the vendor’s tools take part in rejecting applicants, and a federal court has allowed an age claim against it to proceed, describing the vendor’s exposure as an agency theory. The court wrote that a vendor merely running employer-chosen criteria is no different from a spreadsheet. In May 2025 it preliminarily certified a collective. Workday opposed it.
Does the New York City law apply to the vendor?
The city page says the law prohibits employers and employment agencies from using an automated tool without a bias audit within a year, public audit information and advance notice. It does not say vendors are regulated. In practice employers ask the vendor for the audit, and contracts shift the cost. Enforcement started July 5, 2023.
What does Illinois require?
Since January 1, 2026 the Illinois Human Rights Act makes it a violation for an employer to use AI that has the effect of discriminating against a protected class, to use zip codes as a stand-in for one, or to fail to tell employees it is using AI. The text binds the employer, not the vendor, and leaves the notice rules to the state Department of Human Rights.
What does Colorado require of AI vendors?
Colorado’s SB26-189, signed May 14, 2026, replaces the earlier AI Act. It requires developers of covered tools used in employment and other major decisions to give deployers documentation of uses, training data, limits and human review from January 1, 2027, and sets how fault is shared between developers and deployers. It creates no new private right to sue.
Does our tech E&O exclude discrimination?
Some forms do, or exclude employment-related claims, and we cannot say yours does without reading it. The way to find out is to ask the insurer for the exact wording on discrimination, employment practices and regulatory proceedings, in writing, before a claim.
Does the policy cover wrong AI output, or exclude it?
Check for generative AI exclusions or limits, since some 2026 forms add them. A biased ranking is your product failing, and you want AI output named inside covered services. The employer-side policy is a separate document with its own AI wording, so do not assume it protects you either.
A customer wants us to indemnify it for bias claims. What do we check?
What it covers, whether a law-driven audit cost is included, and whether your policy pays for it. Tech E&O may not pay liability you took on only by contract. Ask for the indemnity language before signing, so the promise and the policy match.
Do we need our own EPLI?
If you employ people, yes, like any employer. If you also run recruiting, staffing or placement services, your own exposure looks like an employer’s or an agency’s. The line is not yours as a software vendor, but your own staff are covered by it.
Our app was built with an AI coding tool. Does it matter?
It changes what the underwriter asks about review and testing, not who answers a claim. Candidate data is sensitive, so be ready to say how the code and the model were tested before real employers used it.
We hire people outside the US. Does the insurance follow?
Not automatically. Many tech E&O policies only promise to defend claims brought in the US or Canada, and hiring-AI rules abroad are a separate matter. Tell the insurer where candidates and employers are.
How does this compare with the fitness app page?
Same engine, different harm. A fitness app injures a body and needs contingent bodily injury, the grant for harm someone says came from relying on your output. A hiring tool costs a person a job, which tech E&O is for if the wording allows it. The guide explains the grant.
Is there a flagship page that shows the original argument?
Yes. Our founder owns a fitness app with an AI coach, and what he learned placing it carries over, since personal guidance reads to underwriters more like a professional than like software. The fitness page is where the argument is written out in full.
Where do the other AI app industries sit?
Finance, insurance, legal and health apps each have a different harm and policy fight. The hub lists every industry page.
Guides on HR tech.
- Insurance for an App Launching WorldwideAn app store launch puts your app in front of users in dozens of countries on the first day. Your tech E&O may only defend claims filed in the US or Canada, and your cyber policy has to handle European privacy rules, where health and fitness readings are a special category of data.
- Vibe-Coded App InsuranceA vibe-coded app carries the same liability as any other, and the documented failures are security ones: open databases, exposed keys and an agent that deleted data. Here is which policy answers which failure, what the AI tool providers say about who is responsible, and what to check before you buy.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.