That's now possible with the rise of Model Context Protocol (MCP), a groundbreaking open standard that lets AI models connect directly to real-world systems, data, and devices. MCP is redefining how humans and machines interact, bridging the gap between intelligent reasoning and. By connecting to external systems—reading from databases, calling APIs, processing documents, triggering alerts, and coordinating workflows—AI agents step out of the sandbox and into the real world. They stop being tools and start becoming collaborators. But how exactly do agents gain these. The AI gateway in Azure API Management is a set of capabilities that help you manage your AI backends effectively. Use these capabilities to secure, scale, monitor, and govern AI models, agents, and tools that back your intelligent apps and workloads. Use the AI gateway to manage a wide range of AI. Once you have your machine up and running, you'll need a way to actually run the LLM on it. There are a few apps that do this, but I personally prefer Ollama, and it has been the go-to standard for a while now. Network Engineer and tech enthusiast. Agent DVR integrates fully with AI servers like DeepStack AI, CodeProject AI, PlateRecognizer.