UK Recruitment Glossary
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
In recruiter context
MCP is becoming standard infrastructure in 2026 for AI applications that need access to external data or tools. Instead of every AI app reinventing how to connect to Slack, GitHub, databases, etc., MCP defines a uniform interface: clients (AI applications) connect to servers (tool/data providers) over a standard protocol. AI Engineer roles in 2026 increasingly require MCP fluency — designing servers, integrating clients, debugging connection issues. The pattern matters because it makes AI applications composable: your AI agent can talk to any MCP-compliant tool the same way, rather than custom integration per service.
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