API-First Economy Powering Partnerships

As we transition to the API-first economy, API development was ranked as the highest priority for enterprises in 2023. 🤝~25% of APIs are now used by partners, and 87% of API-first companies integrate with partners faster. Let’s dissect this trend.

The State of Enterprise Tech 2023 research by Insight Partners (one of the biggest B2B SaaS VCs with $90bn under management) revealed that business leaders are convinced that API-first development is the future.

Today, API strategy is the number 1 priority for modern engineering and infrastructure teams, even ahead of the hybrid cloud.

Digitally mature companies use API more as they scale with 43% of them named APIs as their top priority in 2023.

🛠️ The 2023 API trends by Postman explains well the tangible benefits of this shift:

APIs generate revenue for ~2/3 of respondents

For 43% of them, APIs generate over 25%📍 of company revenue

>75% believe that developers at API-first companies are more productive, create better software, and integrate faster with partners.

While nearly 60% of APIs cater to internal consumption, partners claim the second-largest share at about 25%, significantly surpassing public APIs.

Fast partner integration is indeed a primary advantage of being API-first. An impressive 87% of such companies report quicker partner integration.

As a consequence, companies focus and invest even more in API development. 92% plan to increase investments in APIs or at least maintain them at the current level in the next 12 months.

📈 APIs Will Gain Momentum with AI

Currently, 11% of companies are “heavily API-first.” Some industries, like financial services, skew more heavily towards API-first companies, with 15% being API-first.

This might seem like a small number, but it has risen by more than a third in the last 2 years and it will accelerate with AI.

Already, 60% of API professionals are using generative AI in their roles. Two-thirds use it for improving code, with 30% using it to generate code.

Insight Partners believes that AI will speed up the transition to the API-first economy at a much faster pace.

“All services and AI models are becoming accessible through APIs, marking a transition towards an API-first economy. And with Generative AI’s capability to auto-generate APIs or software development kits, the adoption and value creation of Generative AI – and the democratization of technology – can be unlocked at an unprecedented pace.”

APIs drive significant shift towards partnerships focused monetization and we already see it. The API-first economy will further accelerate this trend, don't you think?

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