What is Model Context Protocol (MCP)?
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard, introduced by Anthropic in 2024, that defines how AI applications connect to external tools and data sources through a common interface. Instead of a custom integration for each assistant, a system exposes its capabilities once through an MCP server that compatible clients can use.
Why it matters for your business
MCP reduces duplicated integration work and makes it easier to give several AI tools controlled, consistent access to the same business systems, such as a CRM, file store or database.
A company builds one MCP server for its inventory system, so both its internal AI assistant and its developers' coding tools can check stock levels the same way.