Everyone on Instagram is talking about MCPs and almost nobody explains them. Here is what one is, the ones we actually use, and the difference between an MCP and an API.
An MCP is a way of plugging AI into the apps you already use. Think of it as a USB port built for AI. On its own, an AI only knows what you paste into it. Plug in an MCP and it can reach into your Google Drive, your calendar, your meeting notes or your payments, and work with what is there.
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. It is a rubbish name and you will probably forget it straight away. What matters is that it started with the people behind Claude and ChatGPT and the rest now use it too, so it is not going anywhere.
The USB port idea
Your laptop on its own does a bit. Plug in a printer and it prints. Plug in your phone and it gets your photos off. AI works the same way. Each MCP is one more thing it can plug into.
The ones we actually use
Meeting notes
An app takes notes on our calls and the AI reads them straight in. If something gets promised on a call, it is written down and it ends up on the list, so nothing gets lost between the call and the job.
When a business owner rang one evening at 7pm about a new system, the notes went straight in, and by the next afternoon he had a working demo. Nobody typed anything up.
Google Drive
A new website client gets their folder set up with one command, ready for their content. And when a client sends a folder full of screenshots of their reviews, the AI reads every one and pulls out the quotes, rather than someone copying them out one at a time.
A real browser
This lets the AI use a website the way a customer would: clicking, scrolling, filling in the forms. Looking at a damp proofing firm's website, it found the page had stopped scrolling. Below that point were the reviews, the phone numbers and the enquiry form, everything that wins them the job, and nobody could get to it. You would never spot that looking at your own site.
Payments
The AI can read our payments and check them against our invoices. It is read-only. It can look, but it cannot change anything or move any money. More on why below.
There are more: design tools, calendars, call recordings, image tools. But you get the idea.
MCP or API: what is the difference?
An MCP is how AI plugs into your apps. An API is how your apps plug into each other, with no AI involved at all. Most software you pay for has one. It is the socket in the back that lets it talk to something else.
Most of the systems we build for clients come down to APIs, not AI. A few examples:
- A courier firm's system is hooked up to the trackers already fitted in their vans, so a customer can see their van on a map while the job is on its way.
- A gas engineer's Google rating pulls through to his website live, so he never has to update it by hand.
- A hot tub company selling from two shops, in a build we are working on now. Both shops and their CRM check against each other every minute, so sell one anywhere and it comes off everywhere else.
- Our own CRM talks to WhatsApp. Book a call with us and you get a reminder, because most people who do not turn up are not being rude, they just forgot.
None of it is clever for the sake of it. Every one is a phone call the office does not have to take, or a job nobody has to remember to do.
How to keep it safe
Once these are plugged in, AI can do most things. Send things, change things, even move money if you let it. We do not. Our payments are read-only. The rule is simple: decide what it can do on its own, and what it has to ask about first.
Plugging it in does not make it clever
Giving AI your Google Drive does not mean it knows which photo looks right. It can find the problem on your website, but it does not know what is right for your business. That judgement is still the job of a person who knows what they are doing.
Questions people ask
Do I need to be technical to use MCPs?
No. Most businesses already run on the apps these plug into: a calendar, a booking system, invoices, spreadsheets and a drive full of files. Every one of those could be talking to each other and to your AI.
Is it safe to connect AI to my business apps?
It is as safe as the permissions you give it. Start read-only, let it look before you let it act, and keep anything involving money or customers behind a check by a person.
Is an MCP the same as an API?
No. An MCP connects AI to an app. An API connects apps to each other. Plenty of the most useful joins in a business never need AI at all.
