Presentation: APIs for Agents: Rethinking API Programs in the MCP Era

Jim Gough and Andreea Niculcea from Morgan Stanley discuss how the company has reimagined its API program in light of industry changes in the MCP era. They explain the use of Architecture as Code with CALM to modernize their API program, integrating Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) communications. Automated governance through deployment gates and zero-downtime platform upgrades are also essential components of their approach.

Jim Gough is a Distinguished Engineer and API Platform Lead Architect at Morgan Stanley, while Andreea Niculcea is a Vice President leading the development of self-service deployment capabilities for the firm's API Platform. The pair introduces MCP, which is an open protocol for connecting LLM-based applications to tools and data, enabling structured operations to perform tasks.

They emphasize the importance of security and governance built into the protocol and highlight its simplicity as a client-server interaction that includes discovering and invoking capabilities while validating in the background.