Market Insight: Model Context Protocol (MCP) – Enterprise Software Expectation Or Differentiator?

Executive Summary

This report supports technical, product and commercial leaders at enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) vendors as they assess the implications of Model Context Protocol (MCP) for product development, inorganic growth decisions and competitive positioning. It examines how the rapid commoditization of MCP connectivity is reshaping enterprise software markets, forcing vendors to reassess where sustainable differentiation and long-term value reside. As MCP connectivity becomes a baseline buyer expectation, value is shifting towards action execution, elevating governance, control, security and observability to critical MCP value levers. Vendors face mounting pressure from both customers and competitors to build trusted execution environments, while addressing MCP monetization challenges and the growing risk of value disintermediation as agentic AI harnesses become the primary interface for enterprise software. The research provides a framework to help vendors evaluate their existing MCP strategy and build a durable approach that can help them defend share or access new value pockets in a software landscape in which value is increasingly linked to agentic AI execution.