There is a clear operational question running through this week’s service-management and connectivity news: can organisations bring AI under the same controls they apply to the rest of their technology estate?
Freshworks is looking at the software and AI services employees use, and what they cost. Lumen and Snowflake are focused on the connections that move data between enterprise locations, data centres and the cloud. USU is taking a different route, building AI agents directly into IT service management while keeping a human decision-maker in the loop.
The common thread is visibility. AI is becoming part of everyday IT operations, but organisations still need to know what it is doing, where the data sits and who is accountable when something goes wrong.
Freshworks Moves Freshservice Into AI Spend Governance
Freshworks has agreed to acquire Torii, a SaaS-management and AI-spend-governance provider, in a deal expected to close during Freshworks’ fourth fiscal quarter of 2026.
The planned acquisition would extend Freshservice beyond conventional service management into software inventory, SaaS usage and AI consumption. Freshworks says Torii can track AI usage at token level, attribute it to teams and people, forecast spending and help organisations set limits or identify unexpected spikes.
That matters because AI pricing is adding a new layer of complexity to technology management. Organisations may know what software they have bought, but consumption-based AI charges are harder to predict, allocate and govern – particularly when employees use different tools outside centrally approved workflows.
Freshworks argues that combining Freshservice and Torii would give IT, finance and security teams one view of applications, licences, identities, usage and spend. Torii is already used by organisations including Hearst Corporation, Groupon and Koch.
“Modern IT teams are being asked to govern more of the business than ever, with less visibility into what it costs,” said Dennis Woodside, CEO and President of Freshworks.
“With Torii, that same view now extends to software and AI spend – what’s running, who’s using it, and what it costs, so finance and IT stop reconciling spreadsheets and start making decisions together.”
The transaction is still subject to closing conditions.
Lumen and Snowflake Target Private AI Data Connections
Lumen and Snowflake have announced plans to combine Lumen’s programmable network with Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud, aiming to make private data connectivity easier for enterprise customers.
The companies intend to use Snowflake’s Data Connectivity Proxy, a secure connectivity layer designed to be pre-installed on Lumen infrastructure. The approach would move data over Lumen’s private fibre network, connecting enterprise sites, data centres and clouds without treating public-internet connectivity as the default path.
