AI assistants became truly useful once they started operating company systems. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the open standard behind that connection. A system describes what it offers once, and any compatible assistant can then query its data and run tasks in it, always within the permissions of the person who is connected.
What MCP is
MCP is an open protocol introduced by Anthropic in late 2024 and later adopted by the leading AI providers. It defines a shared language between two sides. On one side sits the assistant, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. On the other sits the system you want to reach, which publishes an MCP server listing the available actions: look up a record, list pending items, create a task, produce a report.
The assistant reads that list and picks the right action based on a request made in plain language. People describe what they need, and the AI turns the request into calls to the right system. It works like a standard power outlet: anything built to the standard plugs into any compatible device.
Why interoperability is the foundation of AI in business
Until recently, connecting an assistant to a system required a custom integration for every pair. Each new AI tool meant a new integration project with each company platform. Costs grew with every new combination.
With MCP, each system implements the standard once. From then on, a single assistant can combine several platforms in the same conversation. A manager can check the hours logged on a project, compare them with the schedule and ask for a status summary without opening three different screens. Data stays at the source, and AI acts as an operating layer on top of it.
This is full interoperability across platforms: systems that used to talk only through rigid integrations become reachable from a common point, driven by what the user needs.
How Action Labs already works with MCP
Action Labs uses MCP in its own daily operations. In Teamlapse, the time management platform developed by Action Labs, most time tracking already happens through conversation with an assistant. The Toolkit, the intranet that holds the company's standard operating procedures, is connected as well: the assistant checks the right process before running a recurring task and follows each documented step. Toolkit, intranet onde ficam os procedimentos operacionais padrão da empresa, também está conectado: o assistente consulta o processo correto antes de executar uma tarefa recorrente e segue cada etapa descrita.
In client projects, Action Labs applies a repeatable security pattern. Each person connects with their own login, chooses at connection time what the AI is allowed to do, and can revoke access at any moment without affecting other users. The goal is to turn MCP into a company capability, available to any project that needs AI support.
What to assess before connecting a system to AI
Connecting a platform to an assistant involves both product and governance decisions. Four points deserve attention from the start:
- Scope of actions. Define which operations the AI may perform. Start with queries and enable records and changes as confidence grows.
- Identity and traceability. Every connection should be tied to a person, with a log of what was done and the option to revoke access individually.
- Data usage rules. Sensitive data should stay inside the platform, with clear policies on what may or may not flow through AI.
- Process before automation. The gains appear when the connected task is already well defined. Mapping where operations face the most friction, as in the Immersion phase of PoC Design, shows which actions deserve a connection first. PoC Design, indica quais ações valem a conexão primeiro.
Interoperability as strategy
MCP lowers the cost of connecting artificial intelligence to what a company already has. The value lies in choosing well what to connect, for whom and within which limits. Companies that treat this layer as part of their product strategy gain speed while keeping control over data and processes.
The topic is the focus of the next Insights de Sexta, the Action Labs gathering for innovators, titled "MCP: don't be AI's copy and paste operator". It takes place on Thursday, November 12, from 5 pm, at Rause Café & Vinho in Batel, Curitiba.
