How AI Connects to Your Apps

How does ChatGPT or Gemini find a document inside your Gmail?

Say you ask your chatbot to find a file in your emails and show it on screen. It can do this only if it has access to your Gmail, and Gmail, Drive and Calendar are separate apps, each with its own permissions.

How do two apps share information?

They use APIs, which are doorways one app opens so another app can reach its information. When you buy something on Blinkit and pay with Paytm or GPay, the two apps talk to each other through APIs.

Do you have to write API code to connect your chatbot?

No. Claude and ChatGPT offer connectors, so you can give your chatbot access to apps like Gmail or Drive in one click. The connector handles the API work for you.

What if your tool has no connector?

Say your company built its own CRM, the system that tracks your customers. You won't find a ready connector for it, so your IT team needs to build an MCP for it.

What is an MCP?

MCP, short for Model Context Protocol, is a standard way to plug a tool into AI, much like a USB port. Your IT team builds it once, and ChatGPT, Claude or any other chatbot that supports MCP can use the same tool.

And what does plugin mean?

The word changes with the chatbot. ChatGPT uses it in a different sense, while in Claude a plugin is a bundle of skills, and often connectors, for one function like sales or HR.

What to remember

Your chatbot can work with any app that opens its doors through APIs, using a ready connector or an MCP your IT team builds. So before you plan a workflow where AI completes the work end to end, check whether your tools have connectors or MCPs.