Azure API Management offers a unified, Azure-based platform for governing everything from traditional APIs to modern AI models, tools, and agents.
As AI transitions to production, the way systems communicate is undergoing a major shift. Businesses now need to manage not only their APIs but also how AI systems function across the organization.
We’re thrilled to announce that Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide API Management 2026 Vendor Assessment (#US52034025, March 2026). We believe this acknowledgment highlights our commitment to helping organizations scale APIs and AI together—with the control, visibility, and dependability needed for production environments.
A trusted foundation, now expanding into AI
For over ten years, Azure API Management has been a dependable control plane for API governance, security, and observability at a global level—serving more than 38,000 customers, nearly 3 million APIs, and handling over 3 trillion API calls each month. That solid base is now extending to address a new category of workloads.
As businesses adopt AI in production, they face the task of governing an expanding mix of standard API traffic and AI-driven interactions—each bringing distinct governance needs, cost considerations, and reliability demands. What started as connecting systems and publishing APIs has evolved into a large-scale operational challenge. Organizations must continuously manage how models, tools, and agents perform in production while controlling expenses, applying policies, and maintaining reliability across multi-provider AI traffic.
The AI gateway features in API Management build upon this proven base, extending the same trusted API governance to AI workloads. Already, more than 2,000 enterprise customers are leveraging these capabilities to bring AI into production safely.
One platform for scaling APIs and AI together
To address this shift, organizations need a streamlined approach—one platform that delivers consistency across both APIs and AI workloads.
Azure API Management serves as a single, Azure-native platform for governing everything from traditional APIs to AI models, tools, and agents—all built on an enterprise-proven foundation. This empowers organizations to accelerate AI adoption without sacrificing control, visibility, or uniformity as they grow. By standardizing how systems connect and interact, teams can reduce complexity, simplify day-to-day operations, and establish a reliable base for innovation across the entire business.
This strategy is already proving its value on a global scale. Heineken relies on Azure API Management as the core of its worldwide API platform, empowering teams to develop and scale digital experiences faster while upholding consistent, centrally managed governance. In just five months, Heineken launched a global API platform that now processes 50 million API calls per month, maintains 100% uptime since launch, and has cut the cost per API call by as much as 75% through standardized governance and security.
Built-in governance for AI at scale
As AI adoption increases, the challenge moves beyond building models to running them reliably in production. Organizations need a uniform way to manage how AI systems function day-to-day.
Azure API Management provides that governance layer, enabling organizations to define how AI systems access models, tools, and agents—while enforcing security policies, tracking usage, and maintaining oversight of costs and behavior across environments. This ensures every interaction remains secure, traceable, and in line with business and regulatory requirements.
This approach is already proving critical in real-world deployments. Banco Bradesco leverages Azure API Management to securely manage AI services and APIs across its channels, applying centralized governance and full end-to-end visibility. By standardizing how APIs and AI services are exposed and consumed, the bank ensures consistent security policies, enhances monitoring of interactions, and supports large-scale digital banking with robust data protection.
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By leveraging Microsoft Azure API Management, we ensure the secure oversight of our AI services and APIs throughout every channel. This framework is fundamental to our infrastructure, permitting us to expand according to need while upholding rigorous governance and safeguarding data.
—Phelipi Dal’Olio, Bridge Manager, Banco Bradesco
From AI Breakthroughs to Business Results
Once proper oversight is established, companies can transition away from mere testing and start generating genuine business value through artificial intelligence.
Telefónica Brasil has adopted Azure OpenAI to refine customer communications via digital platforms. This strategy elevates the quality of service, speeds up reply times, and fosters more tailored interactions on a larger scale.
Concurrently, Access Group has seamlessly woven AI into its product line. Relying on Azure API Management as the core of its AI gateway, Access introduced more than 50 AI-infused products within a year, growing its user base to 2.2 million. They also secured ISO 42001 certification for responsible AI, illustrating that solid governance can actually speed up technological progress.
Air India implemented a generative AI assistant across its large network. Currently, it manages as many as 40,000 customer inquiries daily, has handled over 13 million dialogues, and boasts a 97% success rate. This enables the airline to broaden its customer support without hiring more staff, resulting in savings of millions each year.
Azure API Management aids this transition by offering a standardized method to publish, protect, and oversee the APIs responsible for these AI applications, assisting businesses in advancing from isolated projects to impactful, enterprise-level deployment.
Building the Platform for Future Needs
As companies integrate new interaction methods involving APIs and AI, the platform itself grows to meet them. Azure API Management is broadening its reach to accommodate new trends, such as supervised agent communications, the transformation of APIs as shareable AI tools, and unified discovery and policy management across different environments. This allows organizations to embrace new features without causing system fragmentation or sacrificing oversight.
As investment in AI continues, the capacity to regulate interactions between systems and AI on a large scale will become a crucial differentiator. The role of API management is changing from merely linking systems to facilitating secure and reliable interactions across the entire enterprise.
We are proud to be recognized as a Leader in the 2026 IDC MarketScape for Worldwide API Management Vendor Assessment. We are dedicated to supporting organizations as they confidently scale their API and AI initiatives.
