In 2025, the average enterprise deploys data and logic across 1,061 different applications — a figure from MuleSoft's annual Connectivity Benchmark Report that has risen every year for the past six years. How these applications communicate with each other is no longer a technical architecture question. It is a business strategy question.

Every time a user books a flight and receives a WhatsApp confirmation, APIs are connecting the airline's reservation system, the payment gateway, the notification service, and the messaging platform. Every time a bank customer's credit score is checked during a loan application, an API is connecting the lender's LOS to CIBIL's data service in real time.

The Account Aggregator framework — which allows consented sharing of financial data across institutions via standardised APIs — now has over 1.1 billion consented accounts linked across participating banks and financial institutions. ONDC, the government's open commerce network, is API-native by design.

Globally, Stripe built a $95 billion business almost entirely on the strength of its developer-friendly payment API. Twilio, Plaid, and Segment are further examples of companies that turned API capability into dominant market positions.