Inside Azure API Management

In a recent episode of the Azure on Air podcast, recorded live at the INTEGRATE Summit, host Michael Stephenson welcomed Mike Budzynski, a returning guest from Microsoft’s Azure API Management team.

The conversation offered a high-level look at what’s new in the API Management space and highlighted several areas where the platform is evolving most notably around AI, DevOps, and platform engineering use cases.

Here’s a quick recap of the themes discussed during the session.

Focus on AI-Driven API Capabilities

One of the key areas of innovation mentioned during the podcast is around AI integration with API Management. The team has been actively building out AI gateway capabilities to support new kinds of intelligent services.

Although the episode didn’t go into technical depth, it was clear that AI is becoming a core pillar of future API-related features. This suggests a direction where APIs not only serve as interfaces but also play a role in orchestrating or enhancing AI workloads across platforms.

Related reading – Mastering API Best Practices Enforcing Best Practices with Azure API Management

Alignment with DevOps and Platform Engineering

The conversation also touched on how Azure API Management is becoming more compatible with DevOps practices. Mike referenced improvements aimed at enabling developers and platform engineers to manage APIs more effectively as part of broader application delivery pipelines.

This aligns with current industry trends, where infrastructure and application layers are increasingly being treated as code and managed through automated workflows. While specifics weren’t detailed in the episode, the direction signals growing support for infrastructure-as-code, automation, and developer self-service.

Related reading – Azure API Management monitoring

Continuing Innovation Across the Platform

Mike noted that the team has been innovating across several areas, although there wasn’t time to dive into all of them. The discussion stayed high level but made it clear that continuous platform enhancement is a priority for Microsoft.

Key categories of focus mentioned include:

• AI gateway development
• Developer and platform team enablement
• General innovation within the API Management product

A Quick, Forward-Looking Check-In

This episode served as a short check-in rather than a deep dive. What stood out was the consistency in messaging: Azure API Management is evolving not just as a gateway, but as a strategic enabler of modern app development and intelligent API use cases.

Conclusion

Mike Budzynski’s brief appearance on Azure on Air highlighted Microsoft’s ongoing investment in making API Management smarter, more automated, and better aligned with how teams actually build and run software today. While many specifics remain to be explored, it’s clear that AI, DevOps, and platform engineering are shaping the next phase of Azure’s API strategy.