Integration
Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard for connecting AI assistants to data sources and tools. An MCP server exposes resources and operations; an MCP client (the AI model) discovers and uses them through a well-defined JSON-RPC interface.
Model Context Protocol (MCP) in practice
MCP matters to a business because one server can expose a system, such as a ticketing tool or a document store, to every MCP-capable assistant at once, where earlier each assistant needed its own connector. The usual integration controls still apply: each server gets the narrowest permissions, actions that change data need approval, and every call is logged. MCP is one of the connection options weighed when building AI agents and LLM integrations.