# How CHG Meridian Implemented Enterprise API & AI Management with Kong

This session explains how CHG-MERIDIAN moved from having no formal API management or AI management to building a governed API and AI access strategy across the company. Starting from a landscape where only one customer-facing API was published behind a self-developed gateway, the team set goals around traffic analysis, access control, governance, centralized documentation, better developer and partner experience, and reducing duplicate or shadow APIs. Their planning phase centered on stakeholder interviews, approved use cases, and a high-quality requirements catalog of about 40 business, technical, and operational needs, which became the basis for assessment and vendor selection. After reviewing five major vendors, they chose Kong, then implemented key architectural decisions including centralized authentication, a single developer portal for customers and partners, and Kubernetes as the runtime, supported by Kong professional services and an MVP approach. Next steps include implementing AI management, including guardrails and token oversight, and migrating and prioritizing existing APIs.