The MCP marketplace thesis
Why I think model-context-protocol is the most interesting platform shift of the decade.
The shift
For a decade, "integration" meant REST APIs. You wanted your tool to talk to another tool, you wrote a client, you maintained an integration, you charged for the integration. The market was integrations.
In 2026 the market is shifting. The protocol is MCP. The client is the model. The integration is a server.
Why this matters
The economics flip. In the REST-API world, every integration is bespoke. The vendor builds it, the vendor maintains it, the vendor charges for it.
In the MCP world, every integration is a server. The server is published once. Every model can use it. The economics of a long-tail marketplace become tractable.
What I expect
I expect a Cambrian explosion of MCP servers in 2026-2027. Most will be terrible. A small number will become essential infrastructure. The companies that bet on MCP early will have a moat that is hard to describe in a pitch deck and easy to feel in a year.
CAIA is one of those bets.
Filed in AI Agents & Multi-Agent Systems
Tags: MCP · AI agents · Platforms