Your AI Hub and Our MCP Servers
July 27, 2026 Remember when I first wrote about MCP Servers? Probably not, because you hadn’t heard of them yet. In fact, it was one of my least read AI newsletters. Sigh…the burden of being ahead of the curve…it really is exhausting…
If APIs are how traditional software talks to each other, MCP Servers are how AIs talk to traditional software.
Traditionally, we have mentally associated tech providers with their UI screens. We log into each one independently, get what we need, and go back to work. Here’s an experience for someone that’s using Yardi, HubSpot, CoStar, and LoanBoss.
Every tech company you work with is racing to add AI capabilities. Here’s that same experience as each one of them launches an AI-native experience. It’s cool, but you still need to login to each one. Same pain you’ve always had ✨ but AI ✨
Here’s why you should take the time to build out your AI hub and connect to critical tech vendors via MCP Servers. Once you do, you can connect all those different systems into your own hub. Now you can have Yardi/HubSpot/CoStar/LoanBoss in a single interaction.
This isn’t just a more convenient experience, you can now leverage the data from each provider into a single interaction. Multi-tiered, conditional, complex challenge in a single interaction.
Imagine posing a question like this in your own AI hub: Which properties are most at risk of a refinancing shortfall in the next 18 months and for each one, can we close the gap through improved operations, leasing opportunities already in our pipeline, or a sale at current market values?
Well now we’re getting somewhere, aren’t we?
- Yardi for financials
- CRM for ongoing discussions
- CoStar for comps
- LoanBoss for refi scenarios
Here’s one I did in my own AI hub:
Which customers will have deals with a DSCR below 1.1x if the Fed hikes 50bps in the next 3 months? Give me the company, deal name, email address of the most engaged user, and reverse engineer the notional, strike, and cost for a one year cap that would ensure a DSCR of at least 1.25x. (don’t worry, I anonymized it)
That’s real value. Think of how long a project like that would have taken before.
- Yardi for financials
- HubSpot for contact info
- Pensford for cap pricing
- LoanBoss for rate shocks on projected lender adjusted DSCR
The magic happens when we pair AI with trusted data providers. That’s the real value of AI - not vibe coding a dashboard or asking for a single piece of data.
Connecting to Vendors
How hard is it to set up your own connections? I can only speak to Claude, but it’s a piece of cake.
You just connect to the various trusted data providers through the “Connectors” button. Each one of these vendors has built an MCP Server and they get listed here similar to how apps get listed in the App Store. My companies are actively working with Anthropic to get listed, but in the meantime it’s super easy to establish connections with data providers that aren’t yet listed. They just need to have set up their own MCP Servers the way Pensford and LoanBoss do.
See the “Pensford” connection in the image? It says “custom” next to it, meaning my LoanBoss Claude connected to Pensford MCP Server through a custom connection (since Pensford isn’t listed by Anthropic yet).
Here’s how easy that was…Pensford gave me a unique MCP URL that I dropped into my LoanBoss Claude connections. I pressed “connect” and Pensford approved it on their end - that’s it.
Even if a vendor isn’t listed by Anthropic, it is very easy to set up as long as they have an MCP Server. This also means that if you have customers that will want data from you, you probably need to set up an MCP Server so they can connect to you.
What Happens Next
After you have your AI hub set up, you’re going to email companies like Pensford and ask, “Can we connect to your MCP so we can monitor our caps through our own AI hub?” You’re getting info from Yardi/HubSpot/CoStar/LoanBoss…and now Pensford in your own dashboard. You don’t need anyone else’s screens anymore, you’ll create your own.
I started off by saying we traditionally think of software as the screens we interact with, but those are just the delivery mechanism for the real value - trusted data.
AI is changing the delivery mechanism but not the real value. This is what your organization will look like within a few years.
Software screens are becoming commoditized. Trusted data, expertise, and judgement are not.
Next week, I’ll share my thoughts on how most of our customers are making the same mistake we were making a year ago and why everyone hates Salesforce.