What is an MCP and do you actually need one ?
By Alex R. · 26 July 2026
If you've been spending time in AI circles lately, you've probably seen the acronym MCP pop up. So what is it, and should you care?
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol.
It's an open standard and has originally developed by Anthropic. This standard defines how AI assistants connect to external tools and data sources.
Think of it like USB for AI: a single, consistent plug that lets an AI model talk to your files, your database, your calendar, your CRM, or pretty much anything else.
Before MCP, every AI integration was custom-built. You'd write bespoke code to connect your AI tool to each service. It worked, but it was fragile, repetitive, and hard to maintain.
MCP gives you a standard way to expose a tool or data source, and any MCP-compatible AI can use it immediately with no custom wiring required.
What can an MCP server do?
An MCP server can expose three types of things:
- Tools : actions the AI can take (send an email, run a query, create a record)
- Resources : data the AI can read (files, documents, database rows)
- Prompts : reusable templates to guide the AI's behaviour
Do you need one?
Probably not yet unless you're building AI-powered workflows or integrating AI into your existing systems.
You don't need an MCP if you're just using a chatbot for one-off tasks. The AI handles that on its own.
You do want to understand MCP if you're:
- Building a product with AI built in
- Connecting AI to internal business tools
- Automating workflows that touch your own data
- Using tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or any agentic AI assistant
As AI moves from "chat" to "does things on your behalf," MCP is quietly becoming the infrastructure that makes it all work. It's the kind of standard you don't think about until it's everywhere and then you can't imagine building without it.