MCP Explained: How the Model Context Protocol Is Changing AI Development

In late 2024, Anthropic introduced the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — a standardised way for AI models to connect to external data sources, tools, and systems. In 2026, it's become one of the most important standards in AI development.

What Is MCP?

MCP is an open protocol that defines how AI applications connect to "context providers" — external services that give the AI access to data, tools, and capabilities.

Think of it like USB-C for AI: a universal connector that works regardless of which AI model or which data source you're using.

Before MCP, every AI application had to build custom integrations for every tool and data source. With MCP, you build the integration once and it works with any MCP-compatible AI system.

The Architecture

MCP has three components:

MCP Hosts — AI applications that want to use external context (Claude, your AI app)

MCP Clients — the protocol layer inside the host that communicates with servers

MCP Servers — lightweight services that expose data and tools via the MCP standard

```

Your App (MCP Host)

↓ MCP Client

MCP Server A (Database)

MCP Server B (GitHub)

MCP Server C (Slack)

MCP Server D (Your CRM)

```

What MCP Servers Can Expose

Three types of capabilities:

Building an MCP Server

Using the official TypeScript SDK:

```typescript

import { Server } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/index.js";

import { StdioServerTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/stdio.js";

const server = new Server({ name: "my-crm-server", version: "1.0.0" });

server.setRequestHandler("tools/list", async () => ({

tools: [{

name: "get_customer",

description: "Fetch a customer record from the CRM",

inputSchema: {

type: "object",

properties: { id: { type: "string" } },

required: ["id"],

},

}],

}));

server.setRequestHandler("tools/call", async (request) => {

const { id } = request.params.arguments;

const customer = await crm.getCustomer(id);

return { content: [{ type: "text", text: JSON.stringify(customer) }] };

});

const transport = new StdioServerTransport();

await server.connect(transport);

```

Why MCP Matters for Businesses

Available MCP Servers Today

The ecosystem is growing fast. Pre-built servers already exist for: GitHub, Slack, Google Drive, PostgreSQL, Notion, Jira, Salesforce, and dozens more.

MCP is becoming the backbone of enterprise AI integration. Talk to us about building MCP servers for your systems.