A walk through API economy trends in 2024

Bill Doerrfeld | November 7, 2024

Here's my opening keynote presentation from last month's Nordic APIs Platform Summit 2024. In it, I take a stroll through some API economy trends from throughout the past year or so. I also talk way too much about walking. 🥾 


My presentation covers the rise in APIs across the board and how this is drilling down the need for more oversight in areas like governance, developer experience, and security. I also talk about the symbiotic relationship with AI — how it's producing more APIs but could also aid API design, management, and security.


The presentation focuses on some other trends that are pretty specific to the niche API culture, like what's happening lately in description languages, an interesting report on specification drift, and what the heck 'API management unbundling' means.


Anyways, it's a 30k ft view of the space, but hopefully gives a perspective on the current trends we're finding interesting. I think I only had a couple of stumbles along the trail. 😉


You can also read the accompanying blog post on Nordic APIs for more specific information and links.

If you like this presentation, consider checking out all the other great sessions from Platform Summit 2024.


By Bill Doerrfeld February 28, 2026
While hardware usually gets the spotlight in physical AI, the real differentiator won't be hardware. It'll be the models.
By Bill Doerrfeld February 27, 2026
In the latest DirectorPlus, Workato's CTO explains how MCP-enabled integration catalyzed internal AI usage and ROI.
By Bill Doerrfeld February 18, 2026
My latest on InfoWorld reviews MCP servers from 5 major cloud providers
By Bill Doerrfeld February 18, 2026
How are organizations actually using agentic knowledge bases in practice? My article for The New Stack looks at six emerging patterns.
eBPF in Production Report
By Bill Doerrfeld February 12, 2026
My report for the eBPF Foundation explores enterprise eBPF case studies, production deployments, and real business outcomes across cloud-native environments.
Close-up of whole bean coffee Bottomless
By Bill Doerrfeld February 10, 2026
Longtime Bottomless user sharing why I love automated coffee delivery triggered by a smart scale, plus a referral link for a free first bag.
By Bill Doerrfeld February 5, 2026
MCP servers can quickly drain context windows without guardrails. Thankfully, there are ways around this, say the experts.
By Bill Doerrfeld February 4, 2026
It may seem like AI agents are suddenly doing everything across industries. But in reality, the pace of agentic AI is moving carefully, and very deliberately, in highly regulated environments like finance and banking.
By Bill Doerrfeld February 3, 2026
My latest feature for InfoWorld explores when it makes sense to scrape public web sources, and when official API integrations are the better choice for external data.
By Bill Doerrfeld January 30, 2026
What does it mean to go nano with your software updates — to "carve with a scalpel" instead of swinging a hammer? For my latest DirectorPlus piece, I caught up with Chainguard VP Dustin Kirkland to dig into that idea.