AAISM exam content outline: domains and topics

The AAISM exam content outline is short: three domains, each with a share of the exam, 13 topics under them, and a separate list of 22 tasks. AI Governance and Program Management and AI Risk and Opportunity Management carry 31% each, and AI Technologies and Controls carries 38%. The outline gives no weight to any topic or task and names no framework, standard or law. This guide walks through each domain in ISACA's own words, explains what the topics and the tasks are for, shows how the shares turn into questions on a 90-question exam, and lists what the outline leaves out, because that is where most of the confusion about the AAISM starts.

The short answer

• Three domains, three shares. Domain 1, AI Governance and Program Management, 31%; Domain 2, AI Risk and Opportunity Management, 31%; Domain 3, AI Technologies and Controls, 38%.
• 13 topics. Five under Domain 1, three under Domain 2 and five under Domain 3, lettered A to E, A to C and A to E.
• No weights below the domains. ISACA gives each domain a share and gives the topics none.
• 22 tasks, listed apart. The guide prints them as "Secondary Classifications – Tasks"; the outline page calls them "Supporting Tasks". They carry no weights either.
• The current outline is dated June 2025, the date in the guide's appendix.
• No framework is named. Topic 1A speaks of "Industry Frameworks" and "Regulatory Requirements" without listing any.

What ISACA calls the outline

ISACA's outline page heads the list "Job practice areas tested for and validated by an AAISM certification". The candidate guide prints the same structure in its appendix under the title "AAISM Examination Content Outline", dated June 2025. Both give the same three domains, the same shares and the same 13 topics, with one difference in wording: the guide names Domain 2 "AI Risk and Opportunity Management", while the outline page heads it "AI Risk Management". The topics under it are the same in both.

The guide also says what the percentages mean: "Domain-specific percentages indicate the portion of the exam that reflects that domain content and are not used to calculate exam scores." So the shares tell you where the questions are, not how each domain is graded. There is one score, based on "the total number of exam items answered correctly, regardless of domain."

Domain 1: AI Governance and Program Management (31%)

ISACA's one-line description: "This Domain demonstrates your ability to advise stakeholders on implementing AI security solutions through appropriate and effective policy, data governance, program management and incident response."

Its five topics, in the guide's words:

This is the security manager's governance work, applied to AI: who decides, under what rules, with which assets known and owned, inside which program, and what happens when something breaks. The description's four nouns, policy, data governance, program management and incident response, map closely onto the five topics.

Two of the tasks show how concrete it gets. One is to "Collaborate on charter, roles, and responsibilities for governance and management of AI to align with business objectives." Another is to "Establish and maintain AI incident handling processes, including containment, notification, escalation, eradication, and recovery."

Domain 2: AI Risk and Opportunity Management (31%)

ISACA's description: "This Domain confirms your skill at assessing and managing risks, threats, vulnerabilities and supply chain issues related to the enterprise-wide adoption of AI."

Domain 2 has the fewest topics, three, and the same share as Domain 1, 31%. If ISACA's questions fell evenly across topics within a domain, which the outline does not say, each Domain 2 topic would carry more questions than a topic in either other domain. The outline does not say that, so read it as a reason not to skim Domain 2, not as a forecast.

The tasks that use this domain's vocabulary include "Participate in or oversee the AI risk management life cycle, including impacts on enterprise risk", "Identify and assess the AI threat landscape" and "Embed, monitor, and verify AI security requirements when utilizing vendor AI-enabled solutions."

Domain 3: AI Technologies and Controls (38%)

ISACA's description: "This Domain focuses on optimizing AI security and highlights your knowledge of security technologies, techniques and controls tailored to AI systems."

Domain 3 is the largest share of the exam and the most technical part of the outline, but it is still written for a manager: the tasks speak of designing, implementing, reviewing and monitoring controls, not of building models. "Design and implement security architecture specifically for AI" is one; "Design, implement, and regularly review AI security controls to treat risk to an acceptable level" is another; "Conduct risk-based human oversight of AI inputs/outputs including trust and safety, quality, explainability, and robustness" is a third.

The 22 tasks

Under the three domains, the guide lists 22 tasks headed "Secondary Classifications – Tasks". They are not assigned to topics or domains, and they have no shares. Read them as ISACA's description of the job the AAISM certifies, a second way of looking at the same content. In themes, in our grouping rather than ISACA's:

• Governance and policy: the AI charter, roles and responsibilities; AI-specific security policies and procedures; the responsible use of AI under "leading practices, ethical principles, regulatory requirements, and industry frameworks"; awareness training and acceptable use guidelines.
• Risk: the AI risk management life cycle; the AI threat landscape; monitoring for factors that call for a reassessment of risk; AI impact assessments and conformity with regulatory requirements.
• Assets, data and vendors: inventory and classification of AI data and assets; the security risk of data used in the AI life cycle; security requirements for vendor AI-enabled solutions.
• Architecture and controls: security architecture specifically for AI; AI architecture as part of enterprise architecture; designing and reviewing AI security controls; testing and vulnerability management of AI solutions; AI security tools within the information security program; security metrics for AI solutions; human oversight of AI inputs and outputs; security risk in the AI solution development life cycle.
• Incidents and continuity: investigating, documenting and reporting AI security incidents; incident handling processes; AI security risk in business continuity and disaster recovery planning.

The full wording of every task is in the appendix of the candidate guide and on ISACA's outline page, both linked below.

How the shares turn into questions

The exam has 90 questions, and the shares say how much of it each domain reflects. On 90 questions, 38% is about 34 questions and 31% about 28. Two cautions come with that arithmetic. The exam includes pretest items that "are not used to calculate exam scores", and the guide does not say how many there are or how they fall across the domains. And the score is one total, so a strong Domain 3 can carry a weaker Domain 1, and the reverse. The scoring is explained in the AAISM exam format and scoring.

What the shares do support is a sense of proportion. Domain 3 deserves the most time because it is the largest share and has five topics. Domains 1 and 2 deserve equal time to each other, and the three topics of Domain 2 hold as much of the exam as the five topics of Domain 1.

What the outline does not tell you

• Which frameworks. Topic 1A names "Industry Frameworks" and "Regulatory Requirements" in the plural and stops there. The outline names no framework, standard or law. A prep page that tells you the AAISM covers a specific framework is giving you its own reading, not ISACA's.
• Topic weights. The 13 topics have no published shares.
• Task weights, or how the tasks map to the topics.
• Depth. The outline lists areas, not the facts or the level of detail inside them.

That gap is why a good AAISM course is built to the outline's structure and then has to decide, topic by topic, what a security manager needs to know about AI. It is also why you should be wary of any list that claims to say exactly what is on the AAISM.

Using the outline as a study checklist

The outline is short enough to keep beside you while you study, and it works best as a checklist rather than a reading list.

• Copy out the 13 topic titles and tick each one off only when you can explain the security manager's decisions in it, not just define its terms.
• Read the tasks against your own job. Each task describes something an AI security manager does. Where a task describes work you have never done, that is where to spend more time.
• Spend your hours by share. Domain 3 is 38% of the exam and has five topics; Domains 1 and 2 are 31% each. Give Domain 3 the most time, and do not shortchange Domain 2 because it has only three topics.
• Check the outline's date before your exam. The current one is dated June 2025. If ISACA publishes a new outline, the guide and the outline page will show it.

For an 8-week plan built on these shares, see how to study for the AAISM.

Questions about the AAISM outline

How many questions come from each domain?

ISACA publishes shares, not counts. Applied to 90 questions, the shares come to about 28 questions for Domain 1, 28 for Domain 2 and 34 for Domain 3. Because some of the 90 are pretest items that do not count, and the guide does not say how many there are or where they fall, treat those numbers as a guide to proportion rather than a promise.

Is there a newer or an older AAISM outline?

The outline in ISACA's current candidate guide, version 1.26, is dated June 2025, and ISACA's outline page shows the same three domains, the same shares and the same 13 topics. We check both against our pinned copies every month, and this page changes when they do. If you are studying from material that shows different domain shares, check it against ISACA's own outline before trusting it.

Does the AAISM cover the EU AI Act, NIST or ISO/IEC 42001?

The outline does not say. Topic 1A covers "Industry Frameworks" and "Regulatory Requirements" without naming any, and the tasks speak of "regulatory requirements" and "industry frameworks" in general. What a security manager meets in practice is another matter: our lessons teach the EU AI Act in 33 of the 63 lessons, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework in 20, ISO/IEC 42001 in 17 and the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications in 16, because those are the documents AI security work leans on. That is our judgment of what helps, not a statement of what ISACA tests.

Are the 22 tasks tested separately?

No. The guide lists them as "Secondary Classifications", with no shares, and the score is one total "regardless of domain". The tasks describe the job; the domains and topics are how the exam is divided.

What does "job practice" mean?

It is ISACA's term for the outline: the outline page heads the domains "Job practice areas tested for and validated by an AAISM certification". When a prep page mentions the AAISM job practice, it means this outline.

How our course follows the outline

Our AAISM course is built on the outline's 13 topics: 63 lessons, each mapped to one topic, with the practice questions and flashcards that go with them.

The practice and the mock follow the shares: a full mock draws 90 questions with each domain at its share, 28, 28 and 34. You can see every topic and its lessons on the AAISM exam guide, and a free account opens topic 1A, the stakeholder, framework and regulatory topic, in full, lessons, questions and flashcards. When you are ready for the rest, full access is one payment for 30 or 365 days, and nothing renews.