MCP (Model Context Protocol)

MCP was published by Anthropic in 2024. The idea: instead of building a separate connection for every combination of AI application and software, a piece of software provides an MCP server once. Every AI application that speaks the protocol can use its functions, for example looking up a contact or creating a ticket.

An MCP server describes its tools with name, purpose and expected inputs. The language model decides during the conversation which tool it calls. For phone assistants this is interesting because systems can be connected for which no ready-made integration exists. Permissions remain important: a connected tool can read and change data. Which actions are allowed and what has to be confirmed before execution should be laid down.