AI is quickly showing itself to be a powerful tool. When used correctly, AI and machine learning can lend a level of automation and extensibility that was, for many years, simply a dream. Now, this dream is edging closer to reality, especially in the security tooling space. Below, we’ll look at ten AI-powered API security tools currently on the market.

1. Salt Security

Salt Security is a solution based on the idea of a data lake. Data lakes are massive data repositories where data is stored in a raw format, allowing for a high level of intelligence derivation. Salt Security utilizes this data to provide automated AI/ML-driven benefits to end users, boosting security and improving postures.

How AI Is Leveraged

• Salt leverages data lakes to drive AI/ML models to discover endpoints, potential faults, and weaknesses in security posture.
• Additionally, Salt utilizes these same AI/ML models to detect usage patterns, allowing for heuristic detection of attacks.
• These models then provide hardening guidelines resulting from analysis of successful exploits, allowing for long-term posture maintenance and improvement.

2. AI Copilot by APIMatic

APIMatic is a well-known API SDK generation and documentation solution. Offering a system based around API specifications and automation for long-term updates, maintenance, and versioning, APIMatic is well-versed in the value of well-designed automated systems. Accordingly, their introduction of the AI Copilot seems like the next logical step. API Copilot leverages AI to streamline integration and development processes while reducing security-destroying hallucinations, poorly styled endpoints, mismatched implementations, and more. This, in theory, leads to a more efficient, secure, and effective service.

How AI Is Leveraged

• Many common security errors in LLM-driven integration come from hallucinations. AI Copilot promises their code generation is “hallucination-free,” substantially improving the security posture by reducing errors.
• Deterministic code generation means that the same input will result in the same output every time. When paired with APIMatic’s security compliance systems, this results in consistent and well-formed code regardless of the integration environment, reducing external security issues.

3. Bright Security

Bright Security is a solution for dynamic application security testing (DAST). In essence, DAST solutions are focused on the front-end and the user-facing systems, positioning a security system from an outsider’s perspective to simulate real-world threats. Bright Security leverages AI systems as part of its core technology stack, but notably, it also provides LLM and logic security testing to aid with the enablement of LLM-driven AI in external partners and applications, promising to “future-proof your security posture with LLM and business logic security testing.”

How AI Is Leveraged

• Provides AI and LLM-driven dynamic application testing to create a comprehensive security solution.
• Leverages rapid AI response to enable continuous scanning and threat intelligence integration at scale.
• Additionally utilizes AI models and systems to validate business logic and LLM integration for business partners.

4. Cequence Security

Cequence Security is a unified API security solution, offering products across discovery, compliance, protection, fraud detection, and more. Cequence positions itself as a one-stop shop for security, offering products that manage the entire API lifecycle rather than just a discrete section. In 2023, Cequence began expanding its AI and LLM support, with updates to their Unified API Protection Platform designed to leverage AI in automated security tests.

How AI Is Leveraged

• Utilizes AI to digest APIs and associate them with appropriate testing approaches and systems.
• Additionally, it leverages AI and LLM to detect, prevent, mitigate, and remediate fraud and business logic abuse.

5. Traceable

Traceable is an AI-backed security tool that positions itself as a holistic and comprehensive platform for API security. The platform merges two systems into an engine called the OmniTrace Engine, offering analysis, correlation, and contextualization to build an understanding and introspection of the API service. From here, it provides world-class detection and protection systems, fraud analysis, and mitigation.

How AI Is Leveraged

• Traceable leverages AI to update its threat intelligence through continual updates based on real-world analysis and detection, as well as proactive iteration and testing.
• The underlying engines powering OmniTrace make effective use of LLMs to provide strong correlative and contextual detection and analysis, boosting the understanding of the environment and deployment rather than applying “dumb solutions” that are “universal.”

6. Escape

Escape is an API security platform focused on rapid security enablement. Utilizing systems based on source code, Escape promises complete API visibility and context in minutes without needing traffic analysis. Going a step further, Escape promises remediation code snippets that can be deployed for rapid remediation and security improvement. This, along with compliance management and security rule enforcement, makes for a quite comprehensive tool.

How AI Is Leveraged

• Escape utilizes AI to generate and deploy security testing plans across a wide variety of common vulnerabilities, ranging from the OWASP Top 10 to potential access control configuration faults.
• A proprietary “Feedback-Driven” API exploration algorithm is the basis for much of the value of Escape and is driven by an AI substrate.

7. SOAtest from Parasoft

SOAtest automates API testing utilizing an AI-powered system for wide-scale vulnerability detection and mitigation. Additionally, tests across load balancing, network utilization, configuration, and more can be set up using machine learning for more accurate and useful iteration. SOAtest’s machine learning means that tests can be comprehensive and integrated within a testing pipeline.

How AI Is Leveraged

• Parasoft’s solution uses machine learning’s contextual ability to create tests that integrate with other tests at scale, simplifying what would otherwise be an overly complex network of testing approaches.
• SOAtest additionally surfaces these systems in a way that is very usable to the average end user, reducing the complexity that would come through manual machine-learning prompting in such a system.

8. Aptori

Aptori is a security solution that bills itself as being primarily proactive rather than reactive. Through static, dynamic, and semantic scanning, Aptori provides a comprehensive testing array that can catch issues both before deployment and immediately after deployment, creating an effective pipeline for remediation and repair.

How AI Is Leveraged

• Aptori uses AI to enhance its security posture scanning and vulnerability management service, offering a comprehensive system for security development and implementation.
• ML and AI solutions are leveraged to automatically generate code fixes and offer remediation solutions.
• Aptori utilizes AI to conduct variable static, dynamic, and semantic scans for rapid detection and mitigation.

9. Wallarm

Wallarm is a comprehensive API security system that merges real-time protection, threat validation and verification, and behavioral analytics. Its NG-WAF system is positioned as a next-generation Web Application Firewall, allowing seamless control over the flow of traffic into and out of the API itself. Its threat management system works with an AI/ML-powered analytics system to identify potential threats in practice. Notably, Wallarm also offers substantial automated AI-driven testing to validate posture and ensure accuracy in data output.

How AI Is Leveraged

• Wallarm leverages AI-derived heuristics and behavior analysis to drive threat validation and mitigation.
• AI is used extensively to create, deploy, and manage posture testing and verification, resulting in a more secure system at scale.

10. ImmuniWeb

ImmuniWeb leverages AI across various disciplines. While many security tools will use machine learning as a single tool within a more extensive toolbox of non-machine learning-derived systems, ImmuniWeb is an all-in-one web, API, and cloud testing solution that is going all-in on the integration of AI. Vulnerability detection, endpoint discovery, testing, fault testing, and more are enabled by ImmuniWeb’s offering, and its support for both traditional applications and mobile ones makes it an excellent tool for comprehensive addition to a security system.

How AI Is Leveraged

• ImmuniWeb combines AI solutions and human efforts, allowing for the automation of simple or laborious tasks while sending more complex issues to trained experts.
• Much of the ImmuniWeb product is backed by strong machine learning, delivering effective and fast iterative testing, discovery, and more.

Final Thoughts on AI-Powered API Security

Ultimately, these ten tools represent the AI and machine learning market as it currently exists — a collective set of offerings that promise comprehensive additions to existing security solutions. While some are laser-focused on specific implementations, others are more generalist solutions offering a toolkit rather than just a single tool. As such, the appropriateness of each will depend on your current security posture and the underlying tools.

What do you think of this list? Are there any others we should review? Let us know in the comments below!