MCP is at a Tipping Point: Here's Why You Should Care

Three recent developments suggest MCP is moving from niche protocol to critical infrastructure: Hugging Face launched a dead-simple integration, major players like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft adopted it as a standard, and usage metrics are skyrocketing.

Together, these signals suggest MCP isn't just gaining traction—it's becoming the glue layer between AI agents and real-world tools.

Wait, What Exactly is MCP? Model Context Protocol standardizes how chatbots and AI models interact with real-world tools and data sources. Think of it as the USB-C of AI.

The MCP accessibility problem solved?

Previously, MCP servers were mainly local setups, accessible primarily to developers. But Hugging Face's MCP server changes everything with its streamlined remote approach: just type hf.co/mcp in your query. No complicated JSON file integration or struggling to put brackets in the right place. It changes the game, letting anyone integrate MCP effortlessly and make it more mainstream.

What this means is that as chatbots could become a new operating systems, you can basically be part of this ecosystem if you want to, the same way we build apps for iPhones and Android. Imagine tagging a brand, publication, or tool directly in your chatbot, turning it into an operating system. Or plugging a data scientist’s custom-built model seamlessly into Slack, making it instantly available to your marketing team.

This MCP’s integration also unlocks the potential of the 500,000 AI apps powered by Gradio on the Hub. You can simply add the tools you want in your MCP settings. The team recently integrated the option to activate an MCP server by adding mcp_server=True, and organized a hackathon with more than 4,000 participants (stay tuned for the winners next week!).

MCP Becoming the Industry Standard

When Anthropic launched MCP in November 2024, it promised to standardize how AI connects to real-world tools. Six months later, the numbers tell the story: 50k GitHub stars, and 3.7M downloads last week.

And another validation came from unexpected sources: other tech companies.

Instead of building a competing standard, OpenAI fully embraced MCP. First in March with their Agents SDK, then remote MCP servers in the Responses API support at the end of May, and last week with the announcement that people can now build custom connectors to any proprietary system using MCP.

Google also announced at the end of May that Gemini API and SDK will support MCP. Microsoft also implemented MCP support across Azure OpenAI, Semantic Kernel, and development tools, plus an official GitHub MCP server, with CEO Satya Nadella endorsing MCP as "key to enabling the agentic web."

This isn't just technical cooperation—it's strategic infrastructure investment. When competing AI companies agree on standards, it signals the technology has moved from experimental to essential.

How to get started (really)

Skip the intimidation. Personally, I've been enjoying digging into the logic of the MCP and implementing (hoarding) MCP connections in my tools. MCP is surprisingly approachable:

1. Dive into Hugging Face Integration: in your favourite chatbot, ask a question about models, datasets or apps on the hub and add hf.co/mcp to your query. You can also add AI apps via settings, and integrate them directly into your workflow.
2. Hands-On Experimentation: Spend 30 minutes exploring available MCP tools on repositories like mcp.so, smithery etc (see this blog post)) and connect them through Claude Desktop or Cursor.
3. Identify Your Opportunities: Review your workflows for friction points where MCP automation can save time or enhance productivity.
4. Promote Internal Adoption: Share MCP’s benefits with your team to build internal advocates. Early adoption means competitive advantage.
5. Boost Your Technical Literacy: Even non-developers can quickly grasp MCP fundamentals. The HF free course is really fun (and free), making it easy to level up your team's capabilities.
6. Build an MCP server on Gradio: Explore this tutorial to understand how to convert any Gradio app into an MCP server.

I'm convinced the best way to understand a technology is to actually engage with it. Hope you'll have fun!