apidays Paris 2022 - The next five years of the API Economy, Paolo Malinverno, Salesforce

apidays Paris 2022 - APIs the next 10 years: Software, Society, Sovereignty, Sustainability
December 14, 15 & 16, 2022

Closenote main track : The next five years of the API Economy
Paolo Malinverno, VP of Strategy and Innovation at Salesforce
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Transcript

1. The Future 5 Years of the API Economy Paolo Malinverno VP of Strategy and Innovation
2. 2 Inflation Fragile Supply Chains Cyber Threats Rising Interest Rates Pandemics Climate Crisis Remote / Hybrid Work A World Without Truth War in Europe Energy Crisis UNCERTAINTY https://diginomica.com/uncertainty-certain-transformation-not-option-automation-and-adaptability-are-key-success
3. 2023 SERIES OF EVENT New York May 16&17 Australia October 11&12 Singapore April 12&13 Helsinki & North June 5&6 Paris SEPTEMBER London November 15&16 June 28-30 SILICON VALLEY March 14&15 Dubai & Middle East February 22&23
4. Easy Truths for the next 5 years in APIs [really easy] APIs will be used more and more • Consequence 1: everybody will take for granted that everything has got APIs into it • Consequence 2: everybody will talk about APIs less and less • Consequence 3: you will still find difficult to find just the API you need You will consume existing APIs, more than designing new ones Consumers will still expect to use APIs for free • In turn, API providers will still struggle to get value out of offering APIs ◦ Both for directly and indirectly monetised APIs The abundance of API standards (which means no real standards) will continue • Even in key verticals, like Financial Services
5. MEGA Technology Trends and consequences for the world of APIs
6. Biz Technologists /Non Techie Automation The amount of technology work done by non technology people is going to spike According to Forrester, in the world there are: • 22M of developers • 1B of knowledge workers APIs will be increasingly mixed with low / no code and flows • ‘Make customers interactions digital’ Fusion Teams will become increasingly common Consequences on APIs 1. Expect that your business / experience APIs will be used: a. By people / applications / digital twins who don’t (care to) know how the API works i. Or what system load they will cause b. For usages they were never designed for 2. Biz Technologists need to be governed, by you, first of all 3. If you include external APIs in your developers’ portal, rate limit them if you pay for them on a consumption basis 4. Consider your API will be just a building block, like a microprocess, or a piece of User Interface 5
7. Sustainability Every Company will need to understand, report and manage its greenhouse gas emissions Upstream, Operations, Downstream Greenhouse gas footprint does change in time, potentially wildly • On factors like asset life, location of data centers, or even company growth EU Regulations on sustainability targets likely to get heavier in time Consequences on APIs 1. Massively data intensive a. Forget about spreadsheets 2. It’s all about fishing out accurate emissions data, over and over a. Sounds familiar? b. Absolutely not a trivial job i. i.e. in manufacturing, especially downstream ii. complicated by factoring in circularity or workload and software efficiency 3. Heavy and frequent reporting requirements 4. Design APIs for frequent consumption a. And focus on data accuracy (e.g. real time) 5. Buy / sell sustainability credits 6
8. AI Job Augmentation The use of AI technologies to augment workers capabilities • As opposed to fully automate (part of) them • The tension between augmentation and automation is extremely complex AI job augmentation is key in jobs which heavily rely on Data and Analytics Main decision blockers are risk, costs and implementation complexity Consequences on APIs 1. Increased use of AI APIs, at scale a. Packaging an algorithm in an API will be a very common way of distributing it 2. Never forget the G word (Governance) 3. If you design AI APIs, be ethical a. There is a very fuzzy border between fair commercial interest and plain bias 4. If you use AI APIs, assess the risks of the APIs giving you skewed results. Ask yourself three key questions a. Who financed the development of the API b. Is there any risk of vested interest c. Can you trust the results of this APIs d. What are the downstream consequences and risks of skewed results 7
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIp251KCz6k The Metaverse
10. Two Warnings 1. I would fix this world before creating another (that we will have to fix later) 2. I would not even start talking about rich men taking over social networks 9
11. Web3, Immersive Technologies, Metaverses Gartner Definition: “Web3 is a new stack of technologies for the development of decentralized web applications that enable users to control their own identity and data” Web3 and the metaverse are complementary concepts evolving in parallel Similarly, immersive technologies will become popular for training, remote expert guidance, remote inspection, and remote collaboration There will be huge investments in metaverses • Perennially five years away? Ask yourselves: what if people will prefer living and working in the metaverse? Consequences on APIs 1. With information stored in multiple locations simultaneously and no single authority or ownership, Web3 promises to be API Heaven (or Hell) a. Authentication and Identity Management will be totally different (people own their data) b. NFTs emerging c. REST in peace? 2. Easy to say there will be APIs for immersive technologies (especially Intraverses), but it is very early days 3. Certainly the metaverse is still evolving a lot, too far away to make API assumptions for 10
12. Digital Twins / Digital Humans Digital Twins have been around for years • Customers, physical machinery, even organisations all have potentially sophisticated digital twins, today Digital Humans are AI powered human-like virtual beings, who can connect to any digital entity (i.e. a chatbot), take decisions, and also interact with humans using verbal and non-verbal cues • In other words, digital (non physical) robots Consequences on APIs 1. Today, digital twins already have APIs, that mirror the APIs into their physical twin a. The digital twin APIs are used to test what if scenarios, provide advanced customer care, plan predictive maintenance, etc. b. The physical twin APIs are called to perform real life actions 2. Digital Humans will run algorithms to simulate human behaviour, and will be active a. APIs will just be one of their (legacy) communications channels 3. Innovative, truly digital business models will fuel the Digital Humans Economy 11
13. Core Values. Our North Star. ETHICS