My own ITIL Version 5 path has made this evolution tangible: from Foundation to Product, Service and Experience, with Strategy and AI Governance next. The framework is moving beyond its traditional perimeter toward product life cycles, cloud platforms, DevOps, SRE, observability, AI and end-to-end value streams.
From service management to digital governance
This is not a small adjustment. ITIL is increasingly concerned with how organizations govern digital products, services and outcomes. AI Governance adds another layer: accountability, risk oversight and responsible adoption. These are leadership conversations as much as operational ones.
An audience in transition
The training ecosystem is still strongly associated with Foundation and with roles in support, operations, service management and service delivery. At the same time, Version 5 speaks to directors, executives and transformation leaders through governance, operating models, value creation and AI oversight.
Is the framework evolving faster than its traditional audience?
Where customer-facing teams fit
The Experience module brings user journeys, perception, trust, outcomes and value into focus. Yet many digital organizations already work through customer success, account management, customer experience, operations support and product teams. Their language includes adoption, value realization, renewal risk and expansion.
There is an opportunity to make these links explicit. A framework for digital services becomes stronger when it connects operational practices with how customers experience value and how organizations sustain it.
The value gap
Organizations often create more value than customers can see, measure or defend internally. Closing that gap requires alignment between sales, product, customer teams, pricing and leadership. It is not only a question of process maturity; it is a question of shared accountability for outcomes.
The opportunity is to connect the evolving language, roles and practices of ITIL with the realities of modern digital organizations.