Application programming interfaces (APIs) are becoming essential for automated data exchange, necessitating effective planning and implementation systems to scale as companies grow. Challenges in scaling arise from decentralized teams creating inconsistent APIs, which can lead to integration issues and developer frustration. To address this, companies should adopt design-first principles, establish a central API team and council to facilitate standards, and use tools like API linters and gateways to ensure consistency and ease of integration. Sharing and reusing API models across teams can enhance collaboration, while a well-configured API gateway can streamline monitoring, rate limiting, and authentication processes. As APIs continue to be the dominant form of data exchange, maintaining solid design and implementation practices is increasingly crucial, with emerging tools like schema decorators offering new ways to automate consistency and simplify development.