MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard developed by Anthropic that standardizes how AI models connect to external tools, data sources, and services. Think of it as USB-C for AI — a universal plug-and-play protocol.
Instead of every AI tool building custom integrations for every service, MCP provides a unified way for models to access databases, APIs, file systems, and more. It’s rapidly becoming the industry standard for AI-tool integration.