MCP is like the "app store" for LLMs. LLMs can only do so much by themselves. They need connectivity to pull in context or take actions. Just like how your phone without apps is pretty limited in how useful it is.
Sure, teams could build their own connectors via function calling if they're running agents, but that only gets you so far. MCPs promise universal interoperability.
Some teams, like Block, are using MCP as a protocol but generally building their own servers.
But the vast majority are just sifting through the varying quality of published servers out there.
Those who are getting MCP to work are in the minority right now. Most just aren't doing it or aren't doing it well.
But there are plenty of companies racing into this space to make this work for enterprises / solve the problems you rightfully bring up.
As others have said here, the cat is out of the bag, and it is not going back in. MCP has enough buy-in from the community that it's likely to just get better vs. go away.
Source/Bias disclaimer: I pivoted my company to work on an MCP platform to smooth out those rough edges. We had been building integration technology for years. When a technology came along that promised "documentation + invocation" in-band over the protocol, I quickly saw that this could solve the pain of integration we had suffered for years. No more reading documentation and building integrations. The capability negotiation is built into the protocol.
Sure, teams could build their own connectors via function calling if they're running agents, but that only gets you so far. MCPs promise universal interoperability.
Some teams, like Block, are using MCP as a protocol but generally building their own servers.
But the vast majority are just sifting through the varying quality of published servers out there.
Those who are getting MCP to work are in the minority right now. Most just aren't doing it or aren't doing it well.
But there are plenty of companies racing into this space to make this work for enterprises / solve the problems you rightfully bring up.
As others have said here, the cat is out of the bag, and it is not going back in. MCP has enough buy-in from the community that it's likely to just get better vs. go away.
Source/Bias disclaimer: I pivoted my company to work on an MCP platform to smooth out those rough edges. We had been building integration technology for years. When a technology came along that promised "documentation + invocation" in-band over the protocol, I quickly saw that this could solve the pain of integration we had suffered for years. No more reading documentation and building integrations. The capability negotiation is built into the protocol.
Edit: a comma.