Building the Connectivity Layer for Agentic AI

Unify API and AI traffic with a single control plane for gateways, LLMs, MCP servers, tokens, and monetization—governed, observable, and production-ready.

APIs are the nervous system of AI. In this API Summit 2025 keynote, Kong outlines the AI connectivity layer: unifying API and LLM traffic, adopting agent protocols like MCP, introducing an AI gateway pattern, and enabling usage-based monetization with realtime metering and billing in Konnect.

Key takeaways:

- Unify API and AI traffic (tokens) under one control plane

- MCP as the “USB-C” for agents; support for LLMs, SSE/streaming

- AI gateway pattern alongside API gateway for agents and apps

- Governance, security, guardrails, and observability at the edge

- Realtime metering and billing to monetize APIs and AI usage