Agents Have a Control Problem, and the Gateway Is Where You Solve It

APIDays Amsterdam 2026 ran under a theme that aged about as well as a theme can: “Sovereign Intelligence: APIs for a Human-Centric Private and Public Sector.” The framing was that as the European AI Act moves from policy to enforcement, the real challenge is leveraging generative AI without giving up data sovereignty, transparency, or trust, and that APIs are the regulatory and functional bridge that turns black-box AI into accountable, machine-readable services.