Agentic AI has been the talk of the tech world in 2025. A quick query on Google Trends shows a 6100% uptick in Google searches for agentic AI in the last 12 months. Emergen Research anticipates that the Agentic AI market could be worth as much as $48.2 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 57%.

Google Searches for Agentic AI. August 2024 – August 2025. Credit: Google Trends

As is so often the case when an innovative new technology emerges, this shift has produced a rash of alarmist headlines about the API industry and economy. Zuplo warns that AI agents are coming for your APIs. ManageEngine has suggested that agentic AI will make APIs disappear. And Enterprise Evolver’s Syed Suhail Ahmed speculated on LinkedIn that AI agents could replace API platforms as the new face of data connectivity.

This rash of articles raises the question: are these just sensationalist headlines, or are APIs’ days genuinely numbered? A quick glimpse at Google Trends suggests the former, as Google searches for APIs have increased since last year at this time.

Google Searches for APIs. August 2024 – August 2025. Credit: Google Trends

Delving into some of the existing literature reinforces that hypothesis. A recent article on The New Stack by the CEO of Barndoor, Oren Michels, points out, every aspect of agentic AI begins with an API. Every prompt or question triggers a series of commands, all of which are implemented by an API. It also complicates the way that users and AI interact with APIs, blurring the lines around identity management while simultaneously allowing REST APIs to be converted into agentic tools as MCP servers.

AI Agents: A Layer Over APIs

There are still many instances where APIs are preferable over AI agents. APIs are incredibly fast, stable, consistent, reliable, and efficient, for one thing. APIs are also highly specific, detailing what data can be shared, how it needs to be formatted, how long it should take to respond, and what happens when an error occurs.

For all of their strengths, AI agents often interact via user interfaces and less formal data layers. They may be more flexible than APIs, but they’re also less predictable. Relying heavily upon context, a simple structural change or shift to the layout could completely derail an agentic AI system.

The short answer to the question we posed in our headline, Are AI agents the new APIs?, is no. AI agents are simply the latest layer of tools and services imposed over our APIs.

How AI Agents Are Impacting APIs

AI agents may essentially be a sophisticated layer over our APIs and backend, but they still complicate matters in some particular ways. Unlike more primitive forms of automation that relied on repetitive, scripted tasks, agentic AI can be unpredictable and erratic, which makes securing your APIs difficult. It also requires thinking of tools and services differently, adopting more of a modular philosophy instead of thinking of a tool as monolithic. Agentic AI demands a different approach to identity and access management (IAM), securing individual components instead of giving each user the keys to the kingdom.

Understanding how AI agents work goes a long way towards making sure your APIs and systems are secure. Agentic AI can be broken down into four main categories: the orchestrator, the reasoning engine, the tools and connectors, and the environment itself. The orchestrator is the UI where the user inputs their prompt, which is then processed through a large language model (LLM) like OpenAI GPT-5.0, DeepSeek, or Llama, which it then interprets into commands. This means that the tools and connectors layer is the main element that demands additional security.

Given the complexity of some agentic AI systems, some developers rely on configuration files, environment variables, or static secrets within the development environment. This is a mistake, as static secrets have a tendency to offer more access than is necessary. They’re also tricky to rotate as regularly as current best practices suggest, leaving potential vulnerabilities to linger in the system.

To prevent some of these potential issues, think of each individual AI agent as their own user. You can also group tasks, workloads, and flows together, giving each its own unique identity. Not only will this help make your APIs and system more secure, but it also makes it more transparent, allowing logging, debugging, and cybersecurity systems to keep more thorough records about who’s accessing what data. Finally, cybersecurity teams can help reinforce security by adding context to your security systems and protocols as part of your IAM system.

Combining AI Agents and APIs

Agentic AI isn’t going anywhere, but neither are APIs. APIs are the infrastructure that drives Agentic AI, for one thing. APIs are still faster, more efficient, more reliable, and more secure than AI agents. The future of AI, and most likely APIs as well, will involve AI agents and APIs working together. This means getting your IAM and security systems in order, as well as learning to understand how agentic AI operates. Once you do, you can move forward into the exciting, innovative world of AI agents and APIs without fear or reservations.