Lightyear advances AI-native telecom expense management and enterprise cost control
January 30, 2026
Dennis Thankachan, Co-Founder and CEO of Lightyear, joined Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, to lay out how Lightyear is reshaping enterprise telecom management through AI-native automation, data transparency, and end-to-end lifecycle control.
A telecom operating system for the enterprise
Lightyear positions itself as a "telecom operating system" for the enterprise, automating the full lifecycle of services-from procurement and installation to inventory, expense tracking, renewals, and decommissioning. The platform integrates with existing systems via APIs and serves as a single system of record for services, circuits, costs, and contracts.
For managers, that means fewer blind spots. A unified data layer replaces scattered spreadsheets, carrier portals, and email threads.
Why billing stays messy-and where AI helps
Telecom billing remains uniquely complex: multi-carrier invoices, usage-based fees, taxes, and frequent discrepancies that obscure true costs. Legacy, invoice-centric tools struggle because they stop at digitization.
Lightyear's AI-native approach goes further by tying invoices back to verified network inventory and acting on discrepancies. As Thankachan put it: "We're not just answering questions. We also take the action-buying circuits, managing installs, paying invoices, and handling tickets."
- Categorizes charges and reconciles invoices against active inventory
- Audits discrepancies and opens tickets automatically
- Supports natural-language queries (e.g., cost by site, service, or carrier)
- Executes tasks across the lifecycle: procurement, installs, payments, decommissioning
Outcomes leadership teams care about
Enterprises typically see meaningful ROI within the first year. Savings come from reduced manual effort, better visibility, and proactive cost control.
The platform also feeds a growing dataset-quotes, carrier performance, and billing history-to deliver operational automation and actionable intelligence. The result: fewer surprises, faster decisions, and tighter financial control.
Momentum and investment
Following record customer growth and product expansion, Lightyear secured additional funding at a higher valuation. The new capital is going into engineering, AI-driven R&D, customer support, and go-to-market expansion.
According to Thankachan, this ensures that "everything we do for the enterprise will get better and stronger."
How to evaluate this as an executive
- Baseline your telecom spend, inventory, and contract terms; identify variance between invoices and services in use.
- Ask for the system-of-record model: how services, circuits, costs, and contracts map to each other and to your CMDB/ERP.
- Review reconciliation accuracy, audit workflows, and ticket-to-resolution SLAs.
- Set thresholds for anomaly detection (by site, service, and carrier) and require root-cause analytics.
- Quantify total cost of ownership: licenses, implementation, integrations, and internal time saved.
- Confirm controls for approvals, payments, and decommissioning to prevent bill creep.
- Validate security posture, compliance, and data retention policies.
- Request a pilot with measurable success criteria (recovered dollars, time saved, error rate reduction).
Listen to the conversation and learn more
More on Lightyear's platform and AI-native telecom expense management: https://lightyear.ai/
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (196.2MB)
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