Announcing Degreed MCP: The Moment AI Learning Gets Its GPS

Jennifer Edwards

quinta-feira, 6 de novembro de 2025

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We’ve all spent a year (or more) getting good at prompt engineering and asking AI for smarter, faster answers. But in business, the skill development required for workforce transformation in the AI era doesn’t hinge on clever prompts and quick answers. 

Instead, that skill-building depends on context. AI needs information like:

• Who’s the learner and what is their skill level?
• What does “ready” look like for their role?
• What are the foundations of learning science and how are they applied in this situation?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) brings that context and relevancy.

Think of it like this: You could use an old school map without a GPS. But it’s more difficult and less personalized to where you are. 

Think of MCP as the GPS for AI learning. 

Instead of adding “AI features” into a portal, MCP simplifies integrations, giving AI access to information in other tools and databases and providing a consistent, governed way to tap into the right context from Degreed and connected systems—wherever those AI models live, whatever platform they’re built on. In the GPS analogy, this allows for real time rerouting to avoid traffic, recommendations of nearby attractions, and overall route intelligence. 

Through the MCP interface, AI has access  to broader contextual information to provide more targeted, personalized learning in real time.

With MCP, AI can move from generating content to providing learning context that helps drive capability, so that employees and businesses can develop and apply new skills more quickly.

What is MCP? What role does it play in learning?

MCP, is the connective layer inside Degreed, built to make AI learning assistants truly useful at building capabilities. It gives any approved AI agent—like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or an internal assistant—a governed, real-time snapshot of what matters for learning and performance, including:

• The learner’s skills, goals, and role
• Historical learning and skill data from Degreed 

Think of Degreed MCP as a “context envelope.” With that envelope in place, AI becomes a much more accurate support in the learning process. It can analyze all data related to the employee to provide the right learning at the right time.

How MCP works in the flow of learning

On Tuesday morning, a sales manager opens Copilot and types: “Help my team get ready for Friday’s product pitch.”

Without MCP…

Copilot can find sales decks, playbooks, and pitch documentation, but it can’t tell who’s presenting, what skills they are missing, or how to help them improve.

With MCP…

Degreed and Maestro to bring missing context into view: who’s on the team, what each person already knows, and where they need coaching to tune up their skills.

Together…

Copilot surfaces the right materials, messaging, product overviews, and client data, while Maestro adds AI-native coaching conversations that guide each rep through practice modules and feedback loops tothat strengthen their delivery.

The manager then assigns everything directly in chat, and MCP writes the updates back to Degreed—so every skill, coaching activity, and readiness metric stays governed, current, and measurable.

There’s no extra portal needed or re-prompting required to remind the AI who’s who. The context and personalization from this exercise follow the learner from tool to tool, so the assistant stays helpful across technologies and the data remains secure.

What MCP does for L&D, HR, and IT

Faster time to readiness: Onboarding ramp plans automatically adapt to each role, person, and deadline.
Higher adoption: Learning appears inside the tools people already use and is tailored to their needs.
Auditability: Every learning and skill action is governed and explainable.
Data you can trust: Degreed remains the single source of truth; MCP simply surfaces that data usable in real time.

Built to fit your tech stack, not replace it

MCP works across your tech ecosystem, connecting signals from platforms like Workday, Salesforce, and any LMS, without duplication. It’s vendor-neutral and least-privileged by default, which means that MCP only accesses the minimum data and permissions necessary to perform its function—nothing more. Use your AI of choice, and your governance and security rules will still apply.

As Nikki Hemler, Chief Product Officer at Degreed, shared during Vision, “MCP doesn’t just make AI sound smarter. It helps it make smarter decisions—ones that align learning to business goals, reduce risk, and build real readiness.”