MCP: What API providers need to know

Bill Doerrfeld | December 2, 2025

My keynote from Platform Summit 2025 is now live.


Excited to share my talk from Nordic APIs' Platform Summit 2025 — MCP: What API Providers Need to Know.


As the opening talk of the event, I wanted to address the elephant in the room head-on: MCP.


Model Context Protocol (MCP) was on everyone's radar throughout 2025, and for good reason. It has quickly emerged as a universal connector for AI, giving agents a consistent way to interface with APIs.


In this 28-minute talk, I cover the rise of agents and why context matters, and then look at what MCP is, what it can be used for, and walk through examples of MCP servers and tools now appearing in the market.


I also share early best practices we observed in 2025 — like why you shouldn't wrap an API one-to-one, why natural language naming matters, and where security risks are already showing up.


This is by no means exhaustive, and the video was recorded in October and things have even progressed since then! But I hope it gives a good overview of what API-first-minded architects should consider with MCP.


You can also check out all the other great sessions from Platform Summit 2025 in this playlist.

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This year's Platform Summit felt reinvigorated, with many new motivations and areas to discuss. Of course, AI agents and MCP stole the show.
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By Bill Doerrfeld September 26, 2025
For my latest DirectorPlus edition, I interviewed Thomas Johnson, co-founder and CTO of Multiplayer, about lessons learned releasing their MCP server.
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By Bill Doerrfeld September 23, 2025
Explore whether vector native databases outperform traditional DBs with vector add-ons for AI. Learn use cases, tradeoffs, and expert insights.
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By Bill Doerrfeld September 17, 2025
Join me in Stockholm for Platform Summit 2025 and the API Security UnConference, October 13–15. Exciting talks, networking, and more.