Building enterprise AI applications has historically suffered from the "N × M integration problem." If you have M large language models (LLMs) and N internal tools (databases, APIs, file systems), developers had to build custom connectors for every possible combination. In late 2024, Anthropic solved this by introducing the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Think of MCP as the "USB port for AI" an open, standard protocol that allows any AI model to securely connect to any externa