Model Context Protocol (MCP)
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard introduced by Anthropic in 2024 that gives AI models a uniform way to connect to external tools, data sources and applications, instead of requiring a bespoke solution for every single integration.
In practice
For companies building their own AI assistants that need access to internal tools, databases or documents, MCP offers a standardised interface rather than a series of one-off solutions. That saves development effort and makes it easier to connect further data sources or tools later on. For most marketing teams, MCP is still a topic for the IT department rather than for day-to-day work.