Zain Lakhani

Zain Lakhani was appointed as Pendo's first Chief AI Officer in May 2026, creating a new executive role focused on scaling the company's agentic AI products and rebuilding its platform for AI-native software development environments. He will oversee AI engineering and focus on accelerating the development and deployment of production-grade AI systems across architecture, product development, and partnerships, reporting to Chief Development Officer Saurabh Sodani.

Prior to joining Pendo, Lakhani founded AI engineering firm LightCI, which grew to 250 employees and $100 million in revenue within four years, working with major technology firms including Google, Apple, OpenAI, and LangChain. Through a partnership with Pendo that began in late 2025, LightCI contributed to the development of Agent Analytics, a platform designed to measure performance, usage, and business impact of AI agents, and Novus, an automated product agent built to identify and fix usability issues.

Lakhani holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Toronto and a certification in MATLAB Onramp from MathWorks. His previous roles include Director of Engineering at Cloverly (climate tech), Director of Engineering at Super.com (fintech), and Head of Engineering at EcoCart. He has also served as an Engineering Fellow at NASA and as a Senior Systems Engineer at Stealth, where he created developer tools for building drone applications.

Career History

• Chief AI Officer, Pendo (2026-present)
• Founder and CEO, LightCI (scaled to 250 employees and $100 million revenue in four years)
• Director of Engineering, Cloverly (climate tech)
• Director of Engineering, Super.com (fintech)
• Engineering Fellow, NASA

What Lakhani could bring to his Chief AI Officer role at Pendo: His proven track record scaling an AI engineering firm to significant revenue and headcount, combined with hands-on experience building Agent Analytics and Novus with Pendo's existing AI initiatives, positions him to accelerate the company's transition to AI-native product intelligence and agentic workflows. His deep expertise across fintech, climate tech, and AI infrastructure—paired with relationships at leading AI companies (OpenAI, Google, Apple, LangChain)—will likely help Pendo deepen partnerships and accelerate observability solutions designed for AI-driven development teams.