We believe this recognition reflects a bigger shift happening in the market: AI is changing what enterprises need from API management.
As AI agents, models and applications increasingly discover and invoke enterprise APIs, organizations need more than traditional API lifecycle management. They need consistent governance, security and visibility across API and AI interactions.

IBM API Connect helps enterprises:

• Accelerate API delivery with AI-assisted development through IBM API Connect Flow Pilot, enabling developers to design, build, test, lint and publish APIs from their preferred AI-powered coding environment
• Extend enterprise APIs to AI consumers with IBM DataPower Interact Gateway while preserving governance and security without creating a parallel AI stack
• Govern API and AI interactions consistently across agents, models, applications and enterprise systems
• Secure interactions at runtime with enterprise-grade policy enforcement and visibility

Download the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for API Management to explore the evolving API management market and see why Gartner has recognized IBM as a Leader.

Interested in seeing IBM API Connect in action?
Book a live demo for a custom tour of the product


Attribution & Disclaimer
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for API Management, Shameen Pillai, Nicholas Carter, John Santoro , 28 September 2026
Gartner, Critical Capabilities for API Management, Shameen Pillai, Nicholas Carter, John Santoro, 28 September 2026
Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc., and/or its affiliates.
Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation.
Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.