Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Why it matters in construction

A GC’s data can live across the CRM, estimating package, project management platform, accounting system, document repository, and email. An agent asked “what is our exposure on the hospital job if the electrical sub slips two weeks” may need the schedule, subcontract, buyout log, and forecast.

Before standards such as MCP, connecting an AI to each system often required a custom integration. With MCP, a system can publish its available tools in a common format for compatible AI clients.

How it works

MCP involves two sides.

1. Servers sit in front of a system and publish tools and resources. A project management server might expose “list open RFIs,” “get submittal status,” and “search documents.” Each tool has a name, description, and expected inputs.
2. Clients are AI applications. When a user asks a question, the model sees the available tools, chooses which to call, and uses the results in its answer.

Buyers should pay attention to three parts.

• Discovery. The client learns what the server offers when it connects, rather than relying on a hand-coded tool list.
• Permissions. The server controls what the connected user may see and do. Confirm that an AI client cannot exceed that user’s access.
• Auditability. Each call can be logged with its tool name and parameters.

MCP is a connection layer. The agent still has to choose the right tools and interpret their results, and it can still be wrong.

Example in practice

For example, a commercial GC with about $180M in annual revenue runs BD out of a CRM, estimating in a dedicated tool, and active projects in a project management platform. A BD lead is prepping for a Thursday go/no-go meeting on a $22M higher-ed renovation.

She asks the firm’s AI assistant to build the go/no-go brief. Through MCP, the assistant pulls the opportunity record and last three touchpoints from the CRM, finds two comparable completed projects and their final margins from the project platform, checks the estimating tool for bid-day load that week, and pulls the owner’s payment history from accounting. It assembles a one-page brief with each fact tagged to its source system.

The assistant produces a brief with facts tagged to their source systems. Because it has read-only access, it cannot change any record without a person making the update.