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The API Boom: How AI Is Supercharging the Future of Software

Shailendra Kumar Gupta

— 3 min read
The API Boom: How AI Is Supercharging the Future of Software

Hey everyone,
I'm Shailendra.
Recently, I was studying more about APIs while diving deeper into APIs and exploring how the space is evolving, I stumbled upon a few really interesting reports—especially the Treblle API Report for 2024. That got me digging further, and I came across even more articles and stats showing just how fast the API market is growing. Links are in references.

APIs Are Growing—A Lot

Across the board, all these reports make one thing clear: the API space is growing fast, and a big reason for that is the rapid rise of AI.

  1. As per the Nordic APIs article and Treblle, 83% of All Internet Traffic Belongs to API-Based Services.
  2. As per Imperva, a Thales company, quotes 'API calls make up a massive 71% of all web traffic'.

These all reports very clearly mention that APIs are growing drastically.

Some other stats:

So both AI-related and non-AI APIs are growing, but the AI ones? They’re blowing up.

Graphical data from Treblle, showing the AI related API growth:

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Quick Recap: What Are APIs and AI APIs?

What is an API?

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are basically bridges—sets of tools and protocols that let different apps talk to each other, safely and efficiently. They’re what glue the digital world together.

What is AI?

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is all about machines mimicking human intelligence—understanding text, images, sound, and making decisions or predictions based on that.

These are APIs that bring AI features into apps. Think: language understanding, image recognition, voice processing, etc.—all made easily accessible via simple API calls. No need to build complex models from scratch.

So Why Is AI Driving API Growth?

Honestly, I think it’s a two-way street—AI and APIs are helping each other grow. Here's why:

  • AI models need lots of data, and APIs are a major way to get that data.
  • Most AI services expose their capabilities through APIs—makes tracking, scaling, and integration much easier.
  • APIs make it super simple to plug AI features into apps, products, or services.

So naturally, as AI adoption grows, so does the demand for APIs.
Check out some graphs that depicts the API growth in past few years.

But It’s Not All Smooth Sailing

One thing several reports pointed out—and something I’ve seen firsthand—is that a lot of APIs are poorly documented or managed. This slows everything down.

Developers end up spending too much time figuring out how an API works instead of actually building things. And with the pace we’re moving at, that’s a problem.

That’s why I was glad to see some cool AI tools popping up to solve this—LiveAPI is one I came across that looks promising. It’s designed to help developers better understand, manage, and work with APIs more efficiently.

If you're working with APIs, I’d highly recommend checking it out. Go try it—it might really boost your productivity!

Wrapping It Up

2024 is clearly a breakout year for APIs. A few quick highlights:

  • We’re now looking at 15,000+ APIs, 500,000+ endpoints, and over 1 billion API requests
  • The average API now has 42 endpoints, nearly double from last year
  • Large enterprises are managing 1,000+ APIs, mostly for internal use
  • And AI-related APIs? They grew by a whopping 807%—compared to 10% growth in other API sectors

This isn't just about tech—it’s about how businesses operate and scale. APIs are at the heart of digital transformation, and with AI in the mix, that momentum is only picking up.

Big players like Amazon, Google, Salesforce, and Meta are a great example—they’ve deeply embedded APIs and AI into their products and operations, and it shows in their growth and market dominance.

Final Thoughts

APIs are no longer just backend utilities—they’re core to modern business. They enable speed, scalability, security, and innovation. And in this AI-driven world, getting APIs right is crucial.

If you’re working in tech today, understanding and leveraging APIs (especially AI-driven ones) isn’t just useful—it’s essential.

References

Here are a few links worth checking out:

Feel Free to download the reports and go through articles to understand more about the API growth over the time.

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