API Management: AI Won’t Fix All the Pain Points

Multisourcing and federated management: over time, this pattern has become more established for API management.

Gartner highlights this in the Magic Quadrant summary it dedicates to this market.

Year after year, six vendors remained “Leaders.” None corrected all the shortcomings that the American firm attributed to them in 2025. More precisely:

• Boomi on integration with third‑party gateways
• Google on business strategy, user experience and pricing
• Gravitee regarding brand awareness and the geographic concentration of its customer base
• IBM for its difficulty selling beyond its installed base
• Kong on strategy by sector, geographic presence and user experience
• Salesforce on pricing

Last year, the Franco‑American Axway was among the “Leaders.” It has fallen to the “Challengers.” Sensedia and WSO2 have moved in the opposite direction.

The Magic Quadrant is structured along two axes. One, labeled “Execution,” reflects the ability to meet the needs (pricing, customer experience, quality of products/services…). The other, called “Vision,” translates the strategies (sales, marketing, innovation…).

The situation on the “Execution” axis:

On the “Vision” axis:

Well-integrated acquisitions at Boomi…

Last year, Gartner noted that Boomi was relying less on the iPaaS core to differentiate itself, with the acquisitions of APIIDA and TIBCO Mashery (May 2024) helping to reshape its offering and roadmap. Their integration proved effective, and this year Gartner confirms it, adding the acquisition of Thru (managed file transfer; May 2025) to the mix.

Another positive constant from year to year: expansion of commercial reach. In 2025, Gartner highlighted stronger partnerships, notably with AWS and ServiceNow. It mentions them again this year, in addition to Snowflake. It also notes Boomi’s ability to reach buyers who specialize in integration and AI.

New this year: a notable point on innovation. Specifically regarding advances in agentic AI, evidenced by Boomi Connect (Managed MCP) and Boomi Orchestrate. Gartner praises the possibilities of combining with deterministic workflows.

… whose solutions remain hard to master

Integrating with third‑party gateways can be complex, Gartner warned in 2025. It says the same this year, and speaks more broadly of a platform that is hard to master.

Despite certifications and “accelerators” for sectors such as healthcare and retail, the appeal remains limited for those seeking vertical solutions.

Boomi has not yet built international presence and recognition to the level it has achieved in North America. Gartner also echoes customer concerns about pricing transparency.

Google praised for its breadth of action…

Last year, Google earned point for tooling that favors API design by agents. This year, Gartner applauds its frontline positioning on AI gateways and agentics. It also mentions the add-on Specification Boost, which improves readability and discoverability of APIs for agents.

In 2025, Google was credited for the stability of its offering and its ability to cover the most complex use cases. This year, Gartner emphasizes the broad diffusion of its solutions across regulated sectors. It adds multi-layer security and AI features that support handling of difficult environments (banking, industrial production).

… but pricing still remains an issue

Year after year, the same assessment of its commercial strategy: Google positions its products (Apigee and Google Cloud API Gateway) as complements to GCP rather than stand-alone solutions.

The complexity of the offering remains a reality: implementing and operating it requires substantial expertise. Pricing remains an irritant as well. It “continues to be one of the biggest barriers to sustained usage,” Gartner says. The firm had noted last year some customers’ doubts about the cost/benefit ratio.

Independence and vision at Gravitee…

Gravitee quickly offered an AI gateway handling MCP, Gartner noted in 2025. This year it goes further: the Lille-born company quickly envisioned a catalog of event-oriented interfaces. And it materialized this by launching the Gamma platform, unifying API management, event streams and agents.

Gravitee remains independent of any cloud, ERP or iPaaS. And it adopts a flexible deployment approach with federated management.

… but still exposed to an acquisition

Gravitee continues to lack visibility, particularly in North America, adds Gartner this year.

The customer base remains largely concentrated in Europe (nearly two-thirds), the rest mainly in North America. Buyers in other regions will weigh service and support considerations.

Gravitee is also one of the smaller vendors in terms of revenue. This exposes it, Gartner notes, to the risk of being acquired, especially since several of its competitors include some of the largest global players.

IBM advances an “interesting” roadmap at the intersection of AI agents and APIs…

In 2025, IBM was praised for delivering AI features (prompt management and LLM routing, in particular). This year Gartner appreciates its approach to API governance and rationalization (identifying duplicates or near‑duplicates + MCP metadata enrichment server). It adds an “interesting” roadmap for managing application patterns that emerge at the crossroads of AI agents and APIs.

The diversity of its sales and support network had been another strong point noted in 2025. This year, Gartner highlights its expansion, both in terms of integration partners and on the hyperscalers’ marketplaces.

… but still struggles to win over beyond its installed base

Year after year, one finding remains: IBM struggles to sell its API management solutions beyond its installed base. It also has few industry-specific offerings outside banking and finance. As for its go-to-market, it is focused on IT buyers, failing to reach other lines of business in an era of decentralized budgets.

Kong has built real visibility…

The generation of APIs, specs and MCP servers by AI earned Kong a strong point in 2025. Just as the Kafka gateway (Event Gateway) embedded in its service mesh. This year, Gartner emphasizes the Context Mesh (context engineering), machine identity management and the monetization capabilities for agents, models and MCP servers. It also appreciates elements of the roadmap, such as the OpenMeter integration and code execution sandboxes.

Last year, Gartner noted the visibility Kong built through events, partnerships and presence on major marketplaces. This year it notes higher adoption of its open-source tools and its ability to reach both technical and business populations.

… but its pricing remains hard to read

As in 2025, there are no vertical solutions in Kong’s catalog. Its geographic footprint remains limited (40% of revenue in the United States, 35% in EMEA).

Last year, Gartner pointed to the learning curve required to master Kong’s solutions. It also highlighted the pricing confusion that can arise from service-based pricing, with extra charges for certain elements (portals, tests, analytics). Same remarks this year, plus the observation of limited support for federation of third‑party gateways.

MuleSoft has taken AI seriously…

The integration of MuleSoft with Salesforce helped attract customers, Gartner asserted in 2025. While broadly praising its commercial reach and partner network. It says about the same this year, focusing on growth and operational stability of MuleSoft’s business.

Other positives: the ability to meet AI adoption challenges (shadow AI, proliferation of MCP servers, cost management) and recent improvements such as natural-language API design or converting APIs into agentic tools.

… but remains oriented toward the Salesforce ecosystem

For API management, MuleSoft is one of the most expensive providers, with a complex pricing structure. This was true last year… and remains so this year.

The solution is also hard to master (configuration challenges in particular), in addition to the difficulty of finding specialized developers.

Some features may prove superfluous for those who do not use Salesforce. Many are indeed tailored to use cases specific to this ecosystem.

Sensedia, advanced in API governance…

The Brazilian Sensedia, a new “leader” in API management, stands out for its investments in governance and its stance on sovereignty. It also boasts banking sector expertise, which it leverages as a strength. Geographically, a very specific note: a vendor of interest for deployments in South America given its presence and knowledge of local regulations.

… less on AI capabilities

More than three-quarters of Sensedia’s revenue comes from South America. Investments in other regions have not translated into sales overall. At the same time, the vendor’s visibility is limited in North America and Europe. AI capabilities are generally delivered with a lag relative to the other “Leaders.” In the end, Sensedia lags in capabilities such as the MCP registry and agent-oriented discovery.

Modularity of contracts at WSO2…

On the product side, aside from AI investments, WSO2 stands out for integrating Moesif (acquired May 2025; API monetization), expanding federation capabilities, and the full adoption of the Arazzo specification.

The vendor has returned to growth, and its parent company EQT seems to view it as a strategic asset—investing in both its commercial products and open source. Gartner also appreciates modular contracting and deployment flexibility.

… but a limited SaaS footprint

Like Sensedia, WSO2 is a new “Leader”… and like it, it lacks broader recognition. The modular platform approach has yet to gain traction, and the commercial approach remains focused on technical profiles.

Gartner notes that messaging centered on hybrid deployments while the monetization component is available only in SaaS can create confusion.

SaaS deployments, paradoxically, are limited to a geographic zone, both in Europe and North America. As for the status page, Gartner calls it “rudimentary,” offering little actionable information.