Being actively adopted now that the 2026-07-28 specification drops the session handshake for a stateless core: a server no longer needs sticky sessions or a shared session store, so it deploys onto ordinary HTTP infrastructure like any other endpoint. That removes the operational objection that kept it at arm's length, and makes granting an agent a new capability a matter of publishing one more small service.
An open standard by Anthropic for connecting AI systems to data sources through a universal protocol. MCP enables secure, two-way connections between AI applications and external tools, replacing fragmented custom integrations. Major adoption by OpenAI (March 2025) and Google DeepMind signals industry standardization, with pre-built servers for popular systems like GitHub, Slack, and Postgres available.