MCP — Model Context Protocol — went from zero to industry standard in twelve months. In this episode, Stephen Forte breaks down what MCP actually is, how it works, and why it matters for every executive running a company with enterprise software.

1. What MCP is: An open standard released by Anthropic that lets any AI agent connect to any tool or data source — the "USB port of AI"
2. The math: BCG found integration complexity rises quadratically without a standard. MCP makes it linear — fundamentally different economics for AI deployment
3. Adoption numbers: 97 million monthly SDK downloads, 10,000+ MCP servers in production, adopted by OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and donated to the Linux Foundation
4. March 2026 acceleration: People.ai launched MCP for CRM data, Google Chrome previewed WebMCP, Microsoft integrating MCP into SAP/ServiceNow/Salesforce
5. Why executives care: MCP means AI vendor independence — your data connections persist even when you swap AI models
6. Security: Only 24% of organizations have visibility into AI agent communications. Governance is essential from day one

Sources: Anthropic, BCG, CIO.com, InformationWeek, People.ai, Google Chrome, Linux Foundation, Gartner, Gravitee Survey