APIs as a product or service have always puzzled me since there is much more upside in understanding how a customer is using the API and solving the real problem at hand.
No problem is completely solved by just the API. There is always a developer consuming the API, making sure it's used securely and called in an optimized way. With AI agents on the horizon, could we see the disappearance of APIs altogether? With a lot of this middleware tech being agents communicating with each other?
I like the application and approach of using forward deployed engineers as a better system if possible. They get to be hands-on with specific problems of the customers and know the best usage of the APIs and tools provided. This way the devs at the customer focus on the company's core competency while the forward deployed engineer works on wiring up the middle.
Forward deployed agents could also be something we see in the future, but we are far away from that. Most importantly APIs will decline as they become dated and harder to consume.