Everyone’s asking the wrong question about AI.
“Which model should we use? GPT? Claude? Gemini? Llama?”
That’s like asking which brain to put in a body that has no nervous system.
The model is the brain. MCP is the nervous system. You can’t think without nerves.
The Model Obsession
The AI industry has spent three years obsessing over models. Bigger context windows. Better benchmarks. Faster inference. And models have gotten extraordinary — no question.
But a brain in a jar can’t do anything. It can’t see. It can’t touch. It can’t act. It needs a nervous system — connections to the real world — to be useful.
That’s exactly where enterprise AI is stuck. Brilliant models, isolated in chat windows, disconnected from the systems where work actually happens.
Enter MCP: The Nervous System
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the connective tissue that lets AI agents interact with real-world systems. Think of it as USB-C for AI — one universal standard that connects any model to any tool, any database, any API.
Anthropic built it. OpenAI adopted it. Microsoft adopted it. Google is building for it. The Linux Foundation now governs it through the Agentic AI Foundation.
MCP matters more than models. Because a mediocre model connected to your real systems beats a brilliant model trapped in a chat window. Every time.
What This Means for Leaders
Stop asking “which model?” Start asking “which system?”
- The model you choose matters less every quarter. Models are converging in capability. The gap between Claude, GPT, and Gemini is narrowing fast.
- The system you build around it matters more. How your AI connects to your ERP, your CRM, your inventory, your customer data — that’s the competitive advantage.
- Integration is the new moat. The company with the best-connected AI system will outperform the company with the “best” model every time.
The Brain + Nervous System in Commerce
For commerce specifically, the nervous system includes: real-time inventory feeds, pricing engines, customer preference data, logistics APIs, payment systems, and store-level availability. An AI agent that can reason about a product recommendation AND check if it’s in stock at your nearest store AND initiate a purchase — that’s a brain with a nervous system.
An AI agent that gives you a great product recommendation but can’t tell you if it’s available? That’s a brain in a jar.
The Framework
When evaluating any AI initiative, ask:
Brain: Which model(s) power the reasoning? (This matters, but less than you think.)
Nervous system: What real-world systems is it connected to? (This is where the value lives.)
Muscles: What actions can it actually take? (This is where ROI materializes.)
If your AI initiative is all brain and no nervous system, you have a very expensive chatbot.
Stop choosing brains. Start building nervous systems.
Choose to be wise.