In the past couple of years, generative AI (gen AI) has evolved from an experimental technology to a key component of many software applications, transforming industries and reshaping how we approach tasks traditionally thought to require human creativity and decision-making. From digital art and music composition to personalized customer support to software code creation, gen AI has ushered in a new era of efficiency, productivity and creativity.

The rise of AI assistants

According to a recent survey, 3 out of 4 top-performing CEOs agree that competitive advantage depends on who has the most advanced gen AI. One key way that businesses are operationalizing gen AI is by using AI assistants that support employees and customers. By simplifying access to information and automation across organizations, AI assistants can help improve productivity, customer experience, application modernization and IT operations. In another survey, 60% of executives say AI assistants will execute most traditional processes by 2025. Nearly two-thirds (64%) predict that employees will interact with AI assistants as their primary point of intelligence for transactional tasks in the same timeframe.

AI assistants are transforming API management

With the rapid growth in the use of APIs in recent years, API management has become critical for ensuring that the many APIs across a company’s ecosystem are consistently managed, secured, and governed. But many API management activities, such as writing API documentation, can be manual and time-consuming for developers. By infusing gen AI capabilities into API management through the use of AI assistants, developers and users can complete API management tasks faster and easier across the API lifecycle. This includes everything from creating and managing APIs to securing, testing, and socializing them.

Introducing API Assistant in IBM API Connect

Today IBM is announcing the general availability of the API Assistant feature in IBM API Connect, our market-leading and award-winning API management platform. API Assistant, powered by watsonx.ai, will help IBM API Connect users create better APIs faster.

Let’s look at the API Assistant capabilities now available within IBM API Connect:

1. Enhance your API documentation to improve API discovery, governance and consumption

The need to document APIs is not a new concept. However, with APIs now being consumed by both humans and AI, providing thorough documentation has never been more crucial.

Well-documented APIs are essential for enabling consumers, whether human or AI, to efficiently discover, comprehend and reuse the various APIs across their organization. Moreover, well-structured documentation is fundamental to effective API governance, ensuring consistency, compliance and proper management of API usage across the enterprise.

The challenge is that writing high-quality API documentation is time-consuming and tedious. API developers would rather spend their time solving tough coding and integration challenges than writing detailed descriptions and examples in their API specifications.

This is where the API Assistant in IBM API Connect comes in. With just a couple clicks, the API Assistant reviews the API specification, identifies any gaps and suggests context-specific descriptions and examples to add within seconds. The developer can easily review and apply these recommendations, creating robust documentation and increasing API discoverability, consistency and adoption—both by humans and by other AI.

2. Accelerate API development and boost API reliability with intelligent error remediation

Every API should be fast, scalable and reliable. An important part of the development process is to identify and fix any errors and inconsistencies prior to deployment. But combing through the API specification to identify and debug those errors can be time-consuming. The API Assistant in IBM API Connect can help: it validates the API specification for errors and offers suggestions to remediate them within seconds. For example, the API Assistant can identify common validation errors, such as missing parameters, incorrect data types, duplicative lines of code and more. You can then review and apply any or all of the suggested fixes to quickly remediate the errors, shortening development time while improving code quality.

The API Assistant is now available in IBM API Connect Advanced tier (SaaS). Learn more about API Connect offering options to see which plan is right for you. Or sign up for a live demo of IBM API Connect to see the API Assistant in action.

These exciting GenAI-powered enhancements in IBM API Connect are just the beginning. Stay tuned for many more features designed to boost productivity and accelerate your API-led initiatives.