API sprawl creates hidden security risks and missed revenue opportunities when organizations lose visibility into the APIs they build. According to IBM’s Neeraj Nargund, APIs power the core business processes enterprises want to scale, making automated discovery, observability, and governance essential—especially when thousands of APIs exist across teams and environments. Strong governance helps identify endpoints, remediate shadow APIs, and manage risk at scale. At the same time, enterprises increasingly want to monetize the data APIs generate, packaging insights into products and pricing and segmenting usage, a need amplified by the rise of AI.

To address these challenges, Nargund highlights “smart APIs,” which are infused with AI to provide context awareness, event-driven behavior, and AI-assisted governance throughout the API lifecycle. These APIs help interpret and act on data, integrate with AI agents, and support real-time, streaming use cases.

IBM’s latest API Connect release embeds AI across API management and is designed for hybrid and multi-cloud environments, offering centralized governance, observability, and control through a single hybrid control plane.

Learn more from The New Stack about smart APIs: 

Redefining API Management for the AI-Driven Enterprise 

How To Accelerate Growth With AI-Powered Smart APIs 

Wrangle Account Sprawl With an AI Gateway 

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