Claude and MCP: How the Open Standard for Connecting AI to Your Systems Went Mainstream
Claude and MCP: From One Company's Protocol to an Industry Standard
When Anthropic (the maker of Claude) launched the Model Context Protocol (MCP) in November 2024, it was simply an open standard proposed by a single company for connecting AI to systems and data. Less than two years later, MCP has become the industry standard adopted by the largest competing platforms — and Anthropic capped that shift with a striking move: it donated the protocol to a neutral foundation under the Linux Foundation, so it now belongs to no one. Why should you care as a business owner? Because it turns connecting AI to your systems from a bet on one vendor into an investment in a stable, shared standard.
What MCP is, briefly
Think of MCP as a USB-C port for AI: a standardized way to connect an AI assistant to your systems — your store, your accounting, your CRM, your internal documents — without building a custom connection for every tool and every system. You build one MCP server that exposes your data or tool in a standard way, and any assistant that speaks the protocol connects to it directly. The real value is that AI stops merely talking and starts acting: it reads an order from your store, updates an invoice, and searches your documents to answer a customer accurately.
The big shift: from company-owned to a neutral standard
The most important thing that happened to the protocol is that Anthropic donated it to the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), a directed fund under the Linux Foundation — the same body that stewards major global open standards. The fund was co-founded by Anthropic, Block, and OpenAI, with support from Google, Microsoft, Amazon (AWS), Cloudflare, and Bloomberg. In plain terms: the protocol that connects your AI to your systems is no longer controlled by a single company that might change its policy or walk away — it is a neutral standard governed by an open foundation.
The scale of adoption confirms it, with official figures from Anthropic: there are now more than 10,000 active public MCP servers, and the protocol has been adopted by major competing platforms including ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and the code editors Cursor and VS Code, while AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Cloudflare offer ready infrastructure to run it. Claude itself now has a directory of more than 75 ready-made connectors built on MCP.
Why this matters for your Saudi business specifically
- A vendor-neutral investment: connect your systems once through MCP, then switch the AI assistant you use later without rebuilding your integrations from scratch.
- Long-term stability: a standard governed by an open foundation is safer to build on than an interface owned by a single company that may change.
- A mature ecosystem: thousands of ready servers mean connecting common systems is now faster and cheaper.
- Freedom of choice: as the standard matures, you can build your solutions on it whether you use a global model or a future sovereign Arabic model.
Where to start, practically
Do not start from the protocol — start from a problem with a clear return. Pick one system that eats your team's time (your store, your accounting, or your documents), expose it through an MCP server with tight, limited permissions, connect it to an AI assistant or agent, and monitor what it can reach and what it does. Then expand gradually. Most important in the Saudi context: design the solution to keep your data under your control and compliant with the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) — because giving AI real access to your systems is a responsibility before it is a capability.
The power is not in AI talking smartly, but in it connecting to your systems through an open standard and acting on your behalf safely and confidently.
The Origami view
At Origami we are a technology company that builds AI solutions and connects them to our clients' systems through open standards like MCP — not closed connections that lock you to one vendor. We design MCP servers that expose your data and tools with precise permissions, clear governance, and protection compliant with local regulations, and we always start from one use case with a clear return, then scale with confidence.
Sources
- Anthropic — the original MCP announcement (November 2024): anthropic.com
- Anthropic — donating MCP and establishing the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation: anthropic.com
- Official protocol documentation: modelcontextprotocol.io
Frequently Asked Questions
What is new about MCP compared to a year ago?+
The biggest development is that Anthropic donated the protocol to a neutral foundation under the Linux Foundation, so it is no longer owned by one company — alongside wide adoption of more than 10,000 public servers and support from major competing platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.
Does Anthropic donating MCP mean Claude is no longer tied to it?+
No. Claude remains one of the strongest assistants for the protocol and has a directory of ready connectors, but governance of the standard itself is now neutral — which is in your favor, since you build on a stable standard rather than an interface owned by a single party.
Do I have to choose between Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini to use MCP?+
No. The beauty of an open standard is that you connect your systems once and any of these assistants can reach them, so you switch freely as your needs and costs change.
Does using MCP put my data at risk?+
The risk comes from misconfiguration, not the standard itself. A correct design grants limited access with precise permissions and keeps your data within your systems and compliant with the Personal Data Protection Law.
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