MCP: What It Is and Why It Matters—Part 1
O'Reilly on Data
MAY 8, 2025
1. ELI5: Understanding MCP Imagine you have a single universal plug that fits all your devicesthat’s essentially what the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is for AI. MCP is an open standard (think USB-C for AI integrations ) that allows AI models to connect to many different apps and data sources in a consistent way. In simple terms, MCP lets an AI assistant talk to various software tools using a common language, instead of each tool requiring a different adapter or custom code.
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