Are AI Non-Competes Enforceable?: the short answer is state law, role scope and contract drafting matter more than any single federal headline. Upload notices, contracts, reports or court papers to Caira and turn them into a document checklist.
Open Caira
Current-law note: reviewed against current official-source posture for the 2026 refresh.
So What Changed
Older non-compete articles often treated the FTC's proposed nationwide ban as the next controlling event. That is no longer a safe way to frame the issue. The FTC's 2026 Federal Register action restored the older negative-option rule text and removed the Non-Compete Rule to conform to court decisions. For a worker or company dealing with AI talent, the practical question is therefore not 'is there a federal ban?' It is which state law governs, what the restriction actually says, and whether the employer can point to a legitimate protectable interest.
The Practical Test
Identify the governing state and any employee residence, worksite or choice-of-law conflict.
Separate a non-compete from a non-solicit, confidentiality clause, invention assignment, garden leave term and trade-secret obligation.
Measure the restriction by role, duration, geography, competitive activity and covered products or research areas.
Ask whether the clause protects actual confidential information or simply blocks ordinary AI career mobility.
Check whether the contract was signed at offer, promotion, separation or equity grant, because timing can affect enforceability.
AI-Specific Risk
AI clauses are easy to overdraw because the phrase 'artificial intelligence' can cover foundation models, infrastructure, chips, cloud tools, search, robotics, data labeling, enterprise automation, security and ordinary software features. A clause that bars work in any AI-related business may function like an industry ban. A narrower clause tied to a specific confidential model architecture, customer deployment, training corpus, pricing strategy or unreleased product roadmap is easier to analyze.
What Workers Should Collect
offer letter, employment agreement, equity documents and separation papers
state of residence, work location history and remote-work records
job descriptions, promotion letters and actual duty summaries
confidentiality, invention-assignment and trade-secret policies
the new role description and any overlap with the former employer's products
What Companies Should Do
Companies hiring AI talent should not rely only on a candidate's reassurance that a non-compete is invalid. Ask for the actual restriction, review state law, separate confidential-information issues from mobility issues, and document clean-room onboarding where needed. Companies drafting restrictions should avoid blanket AI bans and instead protect concrete confidential assets with narrowly tailored clauses.
Questions To Ask Caira
Which clauses restrict post-employment activity?
What state law does the agreement choose?
Does the restriction cover the new role or only a narrower product area?
Which confidential information or trade secrets are actually implicated?
What parts of the agreement are non-compete, non-solicit, confidentiality or invention-assignment obligations?
This guide is general information, not legal, financial, medical or tax advice.
