What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?

MCP, or Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that defines how AI assistants connect to external systems and data sources. Introduced by Anthropic in late 2024, it's now supported by Claude, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Gemini, and a growing list of enterprise tools.

Think of MCP as a universal adapter between AI clients and business systems. Before MCP, every AI integration required custom glue code and proprietary APIs. With MCP, any AI client that speaks the protocol can plug into Flowlity the same way, and Flowlity only needs to expose its capabilities once. This matters because it removes vendor lock-in: as new AI assistants launch, they can connect to Flowlity Co-planner without Flowlity rebuilding the integration from scratch.