Definition
AI planning is software that automatically works out the ordered steps to move a situation from where it is now to the goal you set.
At a glance
- You give it a starting point, a goal, and the allowed actions; it finds the steps that connect them[1].
- Planning decides what steps to take; scheduling decides when to do each one[2].
- Common uses: delivery routing, staff and appointment scheduling, inventory reorders, and supply-chain logistics.
- Unlike hand-written rules, a planner searches many possible sequences and picks an efficient one.
Why it matters
Many everyday operations are planning problems in disguise: routing trucks, filling shifts, booking appointments, reordering stock. A planner weighs dependencies, resources, and deadlines to build an efficient plan far faster than a spreadsheet, and it re-plans when conditions change[3].
Where it comes from
The field dates to the 1960s and the Shakey robot at Stanford Research Institute, whose STRIPS planner is a foundational example[4].
Bottom line
AI planning turns a goal plus allowed actions into a concrete sequence of steps, letting software solve routing, scheduling, and logistics problems instead of doing them by hand.