A connection is not an integration question but an interface question: AI agents need tools (MCP), not yet another data dump.
The report shows the field: 4 of 21 providers have an official MCP endpoint, 14 of 21 do not even have a machine-readable API description, 9 of 21 work with static keys.
Anyone who wants to connect agents without building an endpoint ends up with proxies and gateways: fast, but without scopes, without a protocol, with third-party keys.
For SaaS vendors, the connection is a product feature for all customers; for enterprises with a single piece of software, it is a one-off case with different rules.
"We want to connect AI agents" is the sentence with which many digitalization projects start in 2026. What often happens next: a consulting project builds a prototype with data dumps and scripts, and after six months nobody asks about the thing anymore. The reason is in our German MCP Report 2026: connecting agents is an interface question, and the interface is called MCP. We tested 21 German B2B SaaS APIs against it. What the report reveals about connecting:
What a Connection Technically Requires
An AI agent that operates your software needs three things: tools with clear descriptions (search, create, change), authentication on behalf of a user with that user's rights, and a security posture that controls write actions. That is exactly what MCP is: the official standard for precisely this tool layer. And that is exactly what we measure: 4 of 21 of the providers surveyed have an official MCP endpoint (awork, seven.io, clockodo, and personio); the rest connect agents, if at all, by detours.
The Two Detours and Why They End Up Expensive
The data dump: export the data once a week and let an agent run its calculations on it. Sounds pragmatic, but it is not a connection: the agent can only read, only stale data, and can confirm nothing. For the task from the first sentence, "check whether the invoice is overdue and write a payment reminder", the second half is missing.
The key on a third-party platform: a gateway service holds your API key and translates. Fast, but without scopes, without your protocol, and with a third party in the GDPR chain.
The path that remains: your own MCP endpoint in front of your API. The three paths compared shows why, for products with customer data, this is the only state that holds.
Which Connection Applies to Whom
- SaaS vendors: the connection is a product feature. Your customers want to use agents; the official endpoint is the difference between a feature and a liability risk. The build is standardized: 2–4 weeks, fixed price after the audit.
- Enterprises with a single piece of software: here the purchase switch is realistic: choose software that is MCP-ready. Connecting legacy software individually via a proxy is an experiment, not an operation.
- Consulting and implementation partners: the market for implementation is growing; the selection criteria for an MCP agency apply regardless of whom you ask.
→ The fastest first step is a measurement: the free live test shows in under a minute how agent-ready a software surface is today.