Kong’s AI Gateway Aims to Make Building with AI Easier

04/03/25 • 21 min

AI applications are evolving beyond chatbots into more complex and transformative solutions, according to Marco Palladino, CTO and co-founder of Kong. In a recent episode of The New Stack Makers, he discussed the rise of AI agents, which act as "virtual employees" to enhance organizational efficiency. For instance, AI can now function as a product manager for APIs—analyzing documentation, detecting inaccuracies, and making corrections.

However, reliance on AI agents brings security risks, such as data leakage and governance challenges. Organizations need observability and safeguards, but developers often resist implementing these requirements manually. As GenAI adoption matures, teams seek ways to accelerate development without rebuilding security measures repeatedly.

To address these challenges, Kong introduced AI Gateway, an open-source plugin for its API Gateway. AI Gateway supports multiple AI models across providers like AWS, Microsoft, and Google, offering developers a universal API to integrate AI securely and efficiently. It also features automated retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines to minimize hallucinations.

Palladino emphasized the need for consistent security in AI infrastructure, ensuring developers can focus on innovation while leveraging built-in protections.

Learn more from The New Stack about Kong’s AI Gateway

Kong: New ‘AI-Infused’ Features for API Management, Dev Tools

From Zero to a Terraform Provider for Kong in 120 Hours

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Palladino emphasized the need for consistent security in AI infrastructure, ensuring developers can focus on innovation while leveraging built-in protections.

Learn more from The New Stack about Kong’s AI Gateway

Kong: New ‘AI-Infused’ Features for API Management, Dev Tools

From Zero to a Terraform Provider for Kong in 120 Hours

Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

Previous Episode

What’s the Future of Platform Engineering?

Platform engineering was meant to ease the burdens of Devs and Ops by reducing cognitive load and repetitive tasks. However, building internal development platforms (IDPs) has proven challenging. Despite this, Gartner predicts that by 2026, 80% of software engineering organizations will have a platform team.

In a recent New Stack Makers episode, Mallory Haigh of Humanitec and Nathen Harvey of Google discussed the current state and future of platform engineering. Haigh emphasized that many organizations rush to build IDPs without understanding why they need them, leading to ineffective implementations. She noted that platform engineering is 10% technical and 90% cultural change, requiring deep introspection and strategic planning.

AI-driven automation, particularly agentic AI, is expected to shape platform engineering’s future. Haigh highlighted how AI can enhance platform orchestration and optimize GPU resource management. Harvey compared platform engineering to generative AI—both aim to reduce toil and improve efficiency. As AI adoption grows, platform teams must ensure their infrastructure supports these advancements.

Learn more from The New Stack about platform engineering:

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Next Episode

OpenSearch: What’s Next for the Search and Analytics Suite?

OpenSearch has evolved significantly since its 2021 launch, recently reaching a major milestone with its move to the Linux Foundation. This shift from company-led to foundation-based governance has accelerated community contributions and enterprise adoption, as discussed by NetApp’s Amanda Katona in a New Stack Makers episode recorded at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe. NetApp, an early adopter of OpenSearch following Elasticsearch’s licensing change, now offers managed services on the platform and contributes actively to its development.

Katona emphasized how neutral governance under the Linux Foundation has lowered barriers to enterprise contribution, noting a 56% increase in downloads since the transition and growing interest from developers. OpenSearch 3.0, featuring a Lucene 10 upgrade, promises faster search capabilities—especially relevant as data volumes surge. NetApp’s ongoing investments include work on machine learning plugins and developer training resources.

Katona sees the Linux Foundation’s involvement as key to OpenSearch’s long-term success, offering vendor-neutral governance and reassuring users seeking openness, performance, and scalability in data search and analytics.

Learn more from The New Stack about OpenSearch:

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