Hey all. Figured this one required a mid-month update, after all, the AI automation world moves fast, and one of the latest big ideas is Model Context Protocol (MCP). It’s all about making it easier for AI agents to connect with external tools, retrieve relevant data, and actually do things—like update a CRM, analyze reports, create a support ticket, or send emails—without having to build and maintain numerous API calls to different services.
Right now, if you want an AI agent to perform actual actions, you have to build various API calls for each action you want your agent to take. For example, a scheduling agent would need separate API calls and actions to look at all the events in your calendar, add new events, and delete events. The upkeep behind this, especially as your agent(s) requires more tools to be effective, means more API calls and more complexity. All these API calls and actions are where Microsoft Power Automate comes in—it's Microsoft’s automation engine which helps connect to your various applications/tools, that let AI agents interact with business systems, trigger processes, and keep workflows running smoothly.
I’ve been using Power Automate (both cloud and desktop) to support the move from AI as just an information or content resource to a tool that has the ability to actually perform real business workflows and actions. Whether it’s updating data, managing tasks, automating reports, or sending out custom communications, it’s been a backbone for making AI actually useful in a work setting. The big challenge? Connecting and managing all those tools and API's efficiently.
MCP could change that.
If it works as promised, MCP will make AI integration with applications/tools way more seamless, removing a lot of the manual setup required today. That means AI-driven automation won’t just be for tech teams—it’ll be easier for organizations of all sizes to implement AI-powered processes without needing a deep technical background in how to connect to, authenticate with, and use API's from different technology providers.
For anyone already using AI-powered automation (or considering it), this shift could be pretty important. With Power Automate, I’ve helped organizations streamline data collection, automate repetitive tasks, and improve real-time decision-making. If MCP delivers what we're hoping it does, and the wide adoption of it becomes a reality, AI agents will have a much easier time accessing and acting on different platforms, making automation even more powerful and accessible.
This is an exciting time for AI and automation, so I’m keeping a close eye on how these developments play out. If you’re curious about what this could mean for your business processes, let’s chat.
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