The last two years have seen unprecedented disruption and upheaval, the kind that we never thought we’d witness in peacetime. The Covid-19 pandemic brought air travel to a virtual standstill, changed the way we work, and caused immense tragedy for millions around the globe. And some of these trends will stay with us into the next decade and beyond.

If two concepts could be more aligned in terms of growth - you’d be hard-pressed to find a better match between APIs and e-commerce. Over the past decade, both sectors have enjoyed a surge in growth become integral in the digital era.

As a product manager, you will understand the challenge of bringing together all the elements needed in product development. Managing different teams, each using their own software to develop designs, process data, and other tasks, requires an integrated approach in terms of oversight. And APIs can be your secret tool. 

As a global industry, the automotive sector is bigger than the annual GDP of most countries. At $2.7trn, the giants of the industry have built entire towns to serve their operations. Toyota has a namesake city in recognition of its importance to the area. Wolfsburg in Germany is geared towards a German titan, Volkswagen. 

As parents will know, education has changed radically since our childhoods. While millennials may recall a time when they got reprimanded for bringing a phone to class, tablets are now the norm in classrooms - acting as interactive educational tools. IT classes are now coding lessons, and the old "school computer" has been replaced by personal laptops. 

There’s no other way to put it. During 2020 and much of 2021, the food and beverage (F&B) industry took a hammering. The recovery is underway in North America and across most of Europe, but the long-term effects of the shutdown remain, and new outbreaks could disrupt that recovery.  

The term “digital transformation” is often heard on this blog, and it is happening around us. However, is that an accurate description of what is going on, or should we use “digital evolution” instead? Few companies can afford to completely overhaul their systems simultaneously with all the disruption it causes. Many businesses prefer an organized and structured approach towards digital maturity. 

We talk about the API economy a lot on this blog, and rightly so. APIs have been and will continue to be at the heart of the digitalization of the world economy. As global supply chains, networks, and businesses become ever more integrated, APIs have enabled those systems to communicate and transfer data efficiently. 

Many organizations will have multiple data sets across different parts of their systems. Much of the data will contain similar, if not duplicate, information about the same people. This doesn’t only affect clients and external stakeholders. In fact, in some cases, most of the data will be on internal systems and employees, presenting a challenge for HR teams. 

While it might not trigger a passionate discussion around a dinner table, there’s no doubt insurance is a necessary part of life. Whether you drive a car, own or rent a house, or booked a holiday - it’s likely that we’ve had to pay for insurance at some point in our lives. And it is that necessity that drives the value of the industry, which stood at $5.8 trillion in 2020.