Results from SmartBear’s 2023 State of Software Quality | API Survey show an increase in APIs supporting event-driven API architectures.

Over 1,100 API practitioners across more than 17 industries responded to SmartBear’s 2023 State of Software Quality | API survey, which is a leading provider of software development and visibility tools. Although microservices are still the primary factor in API growth, 38% of respondents indicated that artificial intelligence (AI) will likely become a more significant factor in API growth in the future. Since its initial release in 2016, SmartBear has conducted ongoing API community surveys to find industry benchmarks, including trends, best practises, methods, and tools used by developer teams to manage the API lifecycle.

Sean Butler, Vice President of API Product Management at SmartBear, said, “As the API industry continues to rapidly evolve, we are excited to share the most recent API development and management trends, as well as the factors contributing to its growth now and in the years ahead. The number of APIs supporting event-driven API architectures has increased, API documentation is showing a positive trend, and API standardisation and security remain the top challenges for development teams globally, among other intriguing findings from this year.

Key insights of the 2023 State of Software Quality | API survey include:

• APIs supporting event-driven API architectures have increased (62%) while web APIs remain the top experience that APIs are supporting (88%) with mobile close behind.
• 62% of respondents attribute microservices as the top driver for API growth while 53% believe the top challenge for the success of microservices hinges on having the right experience and skills.
• 90% of respondents have documentation in place or plan to have it in place in the future, while 60% of organizations agree or strongly agree that having documentation processes ensure their APIs are secure.
• With rapid API growth introducing fragmentation in how APIs are designed, built, and secured, API standardization (51%) and security (40%) continue to be the top challenges that organizations want to solve.
• Organizations are making strides to have formal testing processes in place. In 2023, we saw a 15% increase in companies making formal testing a priority.

Other research revealed that as teams strive to accomplish more with fewer resources, APIs are viewed as a way to enhance automation throughout the delivery process. Due to the fact that APIs cover the majority of organisational capabilities, practitioners also anticipate better tool integration with existing tooling.