The Sagetap research is based on documented enterprise security initiatives created by verified security leaders evaluating solutions across the enterprise buying landscape. The report analyzed 264 initiatives launched by CISOs and security executives in the second half of 2025, providing insight into where organizations are actively investing in cybersecurity technologies. As enterprises rapidly deploy AI-powered applications and automation, API security is emerging as one of the most critical control layers in modern cybersecurity architectures, according to insights highlighted in Sagetap’s Cybersecurity Report.
Within this context, API security has become a key enabler for securing AI-driven systems, as APIs increasingly act as the operational interface between applications, data, and AI models. This dramatically expands the API attack surface and without API security specific solutions enterprises risk compromising critical business logic, exposing sensitive data, and undermining automated workflows.
Security leaders are therefore increasingly prioritizing technologies that can:
Secure APIs early in the development lifecycle
Enforce governance across large API estates
Detect vulnerabilities in API contracts and logic
Protect APIs that are exposed to AI services
Insights from the Sagetap report suggest that enterprise security teams are actively exploring new approaches to protect application ecosystems as they look to modernize their infrastructures. For many organizations, they have traditionally attempted to address API security through web application firewalls or API gateways. However, these approaches were not designed for API-first architectures or indeed AI-enabled systems and the report highlights 42Crunch as one of a number of vendors capable of addressing these key challenges.
Speaking at the launch of the AI Cybersecurity report, Hugh Carroll, VP Marketing with 42Crunch said, "we are proud to be recognized by some of the industry’s leading CISOs, which serves to highlight the shift in cybersecurity, namely that AI adoption is accelerating the importance of securing APIs. APIs are no longer just integration points—they are increasingly the control plane for AI-powered applications. As enterprises expose more services through their APIs and connect them to AI models, API security is the way to extend trust from these APIs to the agentic AI execution layer."
Security leaders are now seeking platforms that provide:
API lifecycle security
Security embedded from design through development, testing, and runtime.
Deep API contract and configuration analysis
Inspection of OpenAPI specifications to identify vulnerabilities before deployment.
DevSecOps integration
Automation within CI/CD pipelines so security controls scale with development velocity.
AI-aware API protection
Controls that protect access to APIs from AI services and automated agents.
