Protocols in the Age of AI: A Cambrian Period of Innovation

From 2001–2024, the golden era of the API was about connecting to data. REST, GraphQL, and gRPC fueled an explosion of SaaS ecosystems, enabling machines and services to talk to each other over well-defined, structured endpoints. This was the internet’s “industrial revolution” for information access.

2025 marks a new epoch — where we shift from connecting to data → connecting to intelligence.
Two foundational shifts are driving this:

1. Model Context Protocol (MCP)

• 16,000+ servers already online — from personal knowledge bases to enterprise tools.
• Universal clients like VS Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Gemini CLI, and Claude Code can connect to any MCP server.
• Standardizes how AI models communicate with tools, data sources, and workflows — making every LLM instantly capable of acting, not just answering.
• Instead of just querying an API, you can now invite an AI into your environment to use your tools as if it were a human coworker.

2. Agent-to-Agent (A2A)

• AI agents don’t just talk to humans — they collaborate with each other.
• One agent’s output can be another’s input, allowing specialized models to chain capabilities in real time.
• Imagine a network engineer agent, a security audit agent, and a cost optimization agent all coordinating autonomously — with you just giving the high-level goal.

Why this is a Cambrian Explosion

• APIs gave us building blocks.
• MCP & A2A give us ecosystems of intelligent actors.
• We’re moving from data plumbing to cognitive orchestration.
• Just like APIs unlocked an unprecedented wave of SaaS innovation, MCP and A2A will unleash thousands of interconnected AI services — evolving and improving each other at machine speed.

Speakers:

John Capobianco

John Capobianco is a seasoned IT professional who joined Selector in August 2024, bringing his expertise as a former Technical Leader in AI at Cisco, a Senior Network Architect for the Parliament of Canada (The House of Commons), and a Senior Network Engineer with Empire Life. John is also an author, having self-published “Automate Your Network” in 2019 and more recently released a Cisco Press book on pyATS. With a deep enthusiasm for AI and its transformative potential, John is passionate about leveraging automation and artificial intelligence to advance network operations and drive innovation.