API standards: foundational for agentic AI

Bill Doerrfeld | January 27, 2026

Watch the latest LiveCast on API Standards for AI Agents

I recently moderated a webinar that brought together three luminaries in the API community to discuss the importance of API standards in agentic AI development.


Kin Lane, Lorna Mitchell, and Kevin Swiber joined me to explore why API standards are so crucial for AI agents. We took questions from the audience and dug into a lot of practical wisdom, from designing spec-first APIs to the interplay between the OpenAPI Initiative and MCP, along with other standards developments worth watching.


The key takeaway is that the core web and open standards we have long relied on, including OpenAPI, JSON Schema, AsyncAPI, OAuth, OpenID Connect, and others, are foundational in this new era of AI agent tool calling.


The full hour-long discussion is now available on the Nordic APIs YouTube channel.

Watch: LiveCast: API Standards for AI Agents

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