Today application programming interfaces (APIs) are recognised as an increasingly important component of the UK public sector’s digital infrastructure.
From their role in collecting and updating data, obtaining more value from legacy digital systems and supporting the development of new services, both within organisations and across organisations, their major benefits are widely acknowledged. Their importance is growing too with the emergence of internet of things technologies for the building of smart places, and the immense potential of AI in public services.
However, the provision of APIs for public services still remains a challenge - restrictive contracts and excessive charges from legacy suppliers for the provision of APIs, the lack of sector-specific standards and concerns about the quality of data on which they draw - and dealing with this has taken on a new urgency with the surge of interest in the use of AI across the sectors.
Five years ago, UKAuthority and Cognizant first partnered research into the impact of APIs and have now undertaken a new round of UKAuthority Inform research to chart progress and to further explore how can we unlock the full value of APIs for the public good.
This latest research is the result of an in-depth survey of public sector digital specialists, a series of roundtable discussions with digital leaders from public service organisations, a UKA Live discussion and UKAuthority's long term reporting on these issues since it first began its research in 2019. Written and researched by Helen Olsen Bedford and Mark Say from UKAuthority.
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