7.2. ITIL AI Governance
💡 First Principle: Because AI can act and decide in ways that carry real risk, it must be governed — AI governance ensures AI is adopted responsibly, ethically, and in line with the organization's direction, and ITIL offers a capability model to gauge readiness.
Why care: ungoverned AI introduces risks — bias, opacity, unaccountable decisions, regulatory exposure. Governance is what makes AI adoption safe and trustworthy. The mental model: the same evaluate–direct–monitor logic from Phase 5 governance, applied specifically to AI, plus a model for assessing how capable and ready an organization is to use AI well.
⚠️ Common Misconception: That AI governance is purely a technical or legal concern. It's a governance concern in the ITIL sense — directing and controlling AI use to align with purpose and manage risk across all four dimensions.
