Approve the enterprise AI strategy

In plain terms

Decide what the organization is trying to achieve with AI, stated as outcomes with measures and the intervals at which they will be assessed. Without measures it is a statement of intent, and funding at Layer 5 cannot trace to it.

What is being judged

Whether the stated outcomes are business outcomes rather than technology outcomes, and whether they can be shown to have happened.

The test is blunt. Could this outcome be false? Deploy AI across customer service cannot be false; it describes an activity. Reduce customer-reported resolution time by a stated proportion without reducing resolution quality can be false, and something is learned either way.

The second judgment is scope. A strategy naming twelve outcomes funds nothing, because Layer 5 can trace any initiative to at least one of them. A strategy naming three constrains, which is what makes it a strategy.

What this decision does not cover

It does not prioritize or fund; that is L5-01. It does not decide whether a specific capability should use AI, which is L6-03 and sits with the Business Owner. It does not set target maturity, which is L6-02 and is the strategy’s governance counterpart.

When it fires

On event. On a material change in business strategy. On a strategic outcome assessment showing an outcome will not be met. On a change in regulatory position that closes or opens an outcome.

On cycle. Annually.

What you need before deciding

Benefit realization assessments from Layer 5, which is what makes this cycle’s strategy evidence-based rather than a restatement of last cycle’s ambition. The aggregate exposure position from Layer 4. Capacity constraints and lead times from Layer 1, which bound what any strategy can schedule. The current maturity profile.

How this goes wrong

Retroactive strategy: the document is accurate, coherent and describes the sum of what was already funded. It directed nothing, and Layer 5 has been setting strategy through funding decisions. This is the Layer 6 anti-pattern and the reason the funding entry condition exists. Outcomes that cannot be false: above. Strategy without constraints: a document that says what will be pursued and nothing about what will not, which offers Layer 5 no basis to decline anything.

Related decisions

Upstream L5 benefit realization, L4-RSK-06 aggregate exposure, L1 capacity constraints.

Downstream L5-01 funding, which requires a traceable outcome as an entry condition.

Paired L6-02 target maturity, which states the governance capability this strategy requires.

Instrument references

COBIT APO02 managed strategy and EDM02 benefits delivery. ISO/IEC 38500 strategy principle. ISO/IEC 42001 clause 6.2 AI objectives. None requires outcomes to be measurable at a stated interval, which is where most strategies fail rather than in their content.