AI Technical Protocols and Standards

The internet works fairly seamlessly and broadly because of technical protocols and standards. The same is true for mobile. It didn’t happen overnight, and it is just beginning with AI.

Anthropic has announced the open sourcing of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) as a new standard for connecting AI agents to where data lives. The full announcement is here: https://www.anthropic.com/news/model-context-protocol.

This is a good start. We will see more standards and protocols being developed and released to foster AI systems and process architecture, integration, and implementation that become easier and more manageable. AI is in the early stages of a technical ecosystem and infrastructure that doesn’t require wiring up applications, models, data sources, and more in custom ways every time.

As with the web and mobile, standards and protocols will foster faster and broader adoption of AI systems to automate processes and work in companies. The standards and protocols will accelerate the ability of companies to leverage AI. Many companies have failed at implementing high-value and impactful AI systems because they have had to define and create much of the system with a blank slate approach. Anthropic’s release of MCP and others will provide a canvas with some guidelines for approaching AI systems, making the implementation and value from AI more tangible and achievable.