If you’re a developer, you’ve probably worked with an API, or application programming interface. An API is a set of rules for how to communicate with an applications or device. For example, when you build an app and want to use Stripe to handle payments, or use Slack to deliver notifications, it’s APIs that make this possible. Handling communication between different applications was historically challenging, but with the growth of cloud computing and the need for smooth interoperability, APIs have become standard, and are now often considered essential to make a company accessible and visible. The growth of APIs is about to accelerate even more because of generative AI. The reason is that good APIs will be needed so AIs can write code to stitch together multiple systems.

Postman is a popular application and platform for building and using APIs, and they recently released their 2023 State of the API Report. Joyce Lin is the Head of Developer Relations at Postman and she joins the show today to talk about the history of APIs, why APIs have exploded in popularity, and what the future looks like.

Sean’s been an academic, startup founder, and Googler. He has published works covering a wide range of topics from