API management is a core part of the infrastructure in the agent economy. Ibbaka recently studied value in the API management category and uncovered some important ways APIs are creating value and competing with each other. The report includes a value map for the API management category and a design structure matrix (DSM) that shows the key clusters of functionality in this category.

API access is becoming a tension point between AI agents and applications, legacy enterprise applications and their customers. AI has made data more valuable and placed new demands on systems. Legacy vendors are pushing back by throttling or even removing access. Customers believe that this data is their data and that they should decide who gets to access what data for what purpose. Legacy vendors may start to charge AIs for access, a cost that will be passed on the users.

Reddit introduced API pricing in the spring of 2023. In many ways it was well motivated, but it generated a lot of community blowback and damaged Reddit’s reputation. What can we learn from Reddit’s experience?