India-based Postman, a leading platform for building and using APIs, is making a significant leap into the AI space with the launch of an AI agent builder that combines large language models and the Postman API platform. This move marks a significant expansion for the company, which has already established itself as a go-to platform for 500,000 organizations.

The AI agent builder is accompanied by a visual editor that brings together the two technologies, enabling even non-developers to build and test AI agents. This development may seem unexpected for a company like Postman, but according to CEO and co-founder Abhinav Asthana, it's a natural progression given the growing importance of APIs in the AI ecosystem.

As Asthana explained, Postman's customers had been asking about the company's plans for AI agents, and upon examining the patterns of how they were being used, it became clear that APIs played a crucial role. "Our customers actually started asking us about this... And we looked at the patterns in which they are stringing this together. Whether they're using homegrown systems or they're using some third-party stuff, APIs are a key part of it," Asthana said.

The AI agent builder leverages Postman's existing API network, which features an API hub with contributions from over 18,000 companies. This allows users to build AI agents that can interact with these APIs, and Postman is adding testing and evaluation tools to ensure that these agents work as expected. The company's visual development environment, Postman Flows, enables users to build these agents and have them interact with APIs.

Currently, Postman's AI agents are focused on enabling back-end operations, although developers could use the service to power front-end services. Asthana hinted that the company may explore adding a user interface for directly interacting with these agents in the future. "We are all very bullish on agent software, but I think the modalities in which we interact with these systems is also going to evolve," he said.

Postman is not the only company in this space, but Asthana believes that the company can differentiate its service from others, particularly large cloud providers, by offering a better developer experience. "In my opinion, the cloud providers always prioritize consumption of the cloud over developer experience, and I think they're willing to partner with anyone who does actually give the right developer experience," he said.

The company is still determining how to best charge for this new service, with pricing set to evolve over time as the team works out how to best determine the value that these agents bring. Despite this uncertainty, Postman's foray into AI represents a significant expansion of its capabilities and a bold bet on the future of AI development.

As the AI landscape continues to evolve, Postman's move into this space is likely to have significant implications for the industry. With its established API platform and growing user base, the company is well-positioned to make a meaningful impact in the AI ecosystem. As Asthana and his team continue to develop and refine their AI agent builder, it will be interesting to see how this technology is adopted and used by developers and non-developers alike.