AI and Automation: The application programming interfaces, or APIs, are essential for the communication between two different applications to be established, allowing the exchange of information between them.
Through APIs, applications can collect valuable data and enable business development. But it turns out that not all websites have public APIs, only a minority. So what to do?
This is where web crawler custom bots that can provide APIs on sites that do not offer APIs come into play. Oh, and it is worth mentioning an important point: all of this is done 100% in compliance with the General Data Protection Law.
Still talking about rights, it is essential to know that the law brings several guarantees to the citizen, who can request that data be deleted, revoke consent, and transfer data to another service provider, among other actions. And the treatment of data by companies must be done taking into account some requirements, such as purpose and need, which must be previously agreed upon and informed to the citizen. For example, if the definition of treatment, carried out exclusively in an automated way, is to build a profile (personal, professional, consumer, credit), the individual must be informed that they can intervene, requesting a review of this procedure carried out by machines.
Non-compliance with personal data protection regulations may lead to daily fines for implementing compliance programs, even if a service provider company collected this information.
Like everything that involves technology, digital transformation, and innovation, APIs are in a constant process of improvement. Nowadays, this API refinement work is supported by Automation and Artificial Intelligence technologies to achieve even better results and minimize possible errors.
Check out some critical ways API development is being driven forward and how your business can benefit from it.
Integrating Intelligence Into Automation
During the process of testing and creating an API, it is common for developers to use tests that are too repetitive or that do not fit with the business proposition of the website or portal. The solution here is to direct the testing thinking about the final use of the API, which results in more excellent reliability in work performed.
The same can be said when we use custom web crawlers that provide APIs on websites. By using them, all the repetitive part of collecting information is intelligently automated, allowing management to focus on the results indicated by the data collected instead of collecting information manually and with many chances of error.
An example of this automation work is the Plex platform, which, with state-of-the-art technology, can collect data from more than 50 official sources simultaneously within 90 seconds.
Training The Artificial Intelligence
Web crawlers can provide APIs and extract information at a speed and capacity impossible for humans to replicate.
By training them to identify precisely what is relevant to your business, all the work happens automatically, without bottlenecks, and very quickly.
A practical example is if an eCommerce company wants to obtain information about which products are sold and what prices the competition charges. Instead of doing this manually, product by product, custom bots perform this task quickly and accurately.
Mitigating Failures
Let’s continue with the example used above. Imagine if your team had to collect information on thousands of products manually? Besides the issue of time, there are still human failures. After all, eventually, your team would get tired of doing such a repetitive activity, which would lead to mistakes.
This will never be a problem with bots developed and enhanced with Artificial Intelligence. Thus, the number of failures is increasingly minor, and your team can focus on the final results, focusing on what worked and reformulating what did not work for your company to achieve its goals.