COMPEL Glossary / ai-steering-committee
AI Steering Committee
The AI Steering Committee is the senior governance body that provides strategic direction, resolves cross-functional conflicts, approves budgets, and maintains executive accountability for AI transformation outcomes.
What this means in practice
It typically includes 7-12 leaders representing executive leadership, business functions, governance and risk, and the CoE leader. The committee requires a formal charter defining its mandate, decision rights, escalation authority, and relationship to existing governance structures -- without this charter, committees risk becoming advisory rather than authoritative. Effective committees operate on a monthly cadence during active COMPEL cycles, with additional sessions at stage gate transitions. The Steering Committee is the authority that approves stage transitions, reviews gate criteria, and authorizes resource commitments for each subsequent stage.
Why it matters
Without a senior governance body providing strategic direction and resolving cross-functional conflicts, AI transformation programs lose momentum, accumulate unresolved disputes, and drift from strategic alignment. The Steering Committee is the authority that maintains executive accountability for transformation outcomes and ensures that AI investments serve the organization's strategic objectives rather than individual department interests.
How COMPEL uses it
The Steering Committee is established during the Organize stage with a formal charter defining its mandate, decision rights, and relationship to existing governance structures. It approves stage transitions at each Evaluate gate, reviews the risk register during Learn, and authorizes resource commitments for subsequent stages. The committee operates on a monthly cadence during active COMPEL cycles, with additional sessions at stage gate transitions between Produce and Evaluate.
Related Terms
Other glossary terms mentioned in this entry's definition and context.