Network APIs are more than a new revenue stream: Deutsche Telekom positions them as the foundational trust layer of the digital economy — from fraud prevention in fintech to securing autonomous AI agents. Whenever network APIs come up, monetization is usually the first talking point — not least since McKinsey estimated the market potential around connectivity and edge computing at 100 to 300 billion US dollars. Deutsche Telekom, however, puts a different aspect front and center: trust.

"The right positioning for network APIs is the potential to be the foundational trust layer for the whole digital economy, including the emerging AI journey," says Dr. Chathurangi Wickramasinghe, Senior Vice President Magenta API Capability Exposure at Deutsche Telekom, speaking to TM Forum Inform.

What matters is the outcome, not the technology: "Customers are not buying APIs. They buy outcomes." A fintech company, for instance, primarily wants to know one thing: can I trust this digital journey? This is exactly where network APIs come in — with capabilities such as number verification, location assurance and SIM swap detection that enable fraud prevention, stronger authentication and low-friction customer experiences. Agentic AI is creating entirely new use cases: when autonomous systems act on behalf of users, network APIs deliver the reliable, trusted signal from the network — providing context and permissions for authenticating AI agents.

To scale the ecosystem, the industry is building on standards: the GSMA Open Gateway Open Gateway initiative, unified CAMARA specifications and aggregators such as Aduna, which bundle standardized network APIs for the entire market. At the same time, Wickramasinghe stresses what counts now: simple API access, clear documentation and scalable support models. "The developer and customer experience is very critical and must be a very central part of our way of working."