Planning your AI strategy
Define AI strategic priorities, set measurable goals, and track planning items and costs to align your AI investments with organizational objectives.
Why strategic planning matters for AI
AI investments succeed when they are tied to measurable organizational objectives — not deployed in isolation. Without a strategic framework, AI initiatives risk becoming fragmented experiments that are difficult to prioritize, fund, and sustain. AI Control Tower connects your AI governance capabilities to the broader strategic planning tools on the ServiceNow platform. Every AI investment traces back to a priority your organization has committed to.
The Plan area of AI Control Tower integrates with ServiceNow Goal Framework, Strategic Planning, and PPM Standard. Items categorized as Artificial Intelligence in those applications appear automatically in the AI Control Tower workspace. AI stewards and leadership get a single view of how AI work aligns with organizational strategy.
Defining strategic priorities and goals
In Strategic Planning, strategic priorities with the Type field set to Artificial Intelligence appear in the Strategy section of AI Control Tower. In Goal Framework, goals with the Category field set to Artificial Intelligence appear there as well. AI stewards and strategic planners can monitor progress against targets without switching between applications.
This integration makes AI governance tangible at the executive level. Leadership can see whether the organization's AI goals are on track, which priorities are stalled, and where resources may need to be redirected. All of this is visible within the same workspace where operational governance happens.
Tracking costs and prioritizing AI work
Planning items with the Investment type field set to Artificial Intelligence appear in the Costs section. There, you can compare planned, budgeted, and actual costs for AI projects, epics, and demands. This visibility helps finance and governance teams ensure that AI spending aligns with approved budgets and delivers expected returns.
Prioritized planning items surface in the Prioritized AI work section, where you can track the status of projects, epics, and demands that have been selected for execution. For organizations managing multiple AI initiatives simultaneously, this view clarifies what is active, what is queued, and what has been deprioritized.
Monitoring risks, issues, and decisions
Projects classified as Artificial Intelligence appear in the AI RIDAC section. Projects linked to AI-classified goals and strategic priorities also appear there, surfacing their risks, issues, decisions, actions, and changes (RIDAC). This view consolidates project-level governance information from PPM Standard and Project Workspace. AI stewards can monitor execution risks and outstanding decisions across the AI portfolio in a single place.
Prerequisites
AI strategy planning in AI Control Tower relies on data from the following ServiceNow applications. For details on configuring and using these applications, see their respective documentation:
- Goal Framework — for creating goals and strategic priorities
- Strategic Planning — for managing planning items and prioritization
- PPM Standard — for project management and RIDAC tracking