Teaching Claude to Talk Directly to My CRM

I just taught Claude to directly query my CRM.

Complex workflows became single prompts:

A month ago my network kept talking about something called Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Initially abstract, I understood it simply as: MCP lets AI models directly access your existing tools and databases.

Think of it like the invention of USB:

→ Before USB: Multiple incompatible ports

→ After USB: One universal connection

→ Before MCP: Custom data integrations

→ After MCP: Universal plug-and-play AI connectivity

Then a week ago I got an email from my personal CRM provider Clay that they had support for MCP.

Historically, CRMs have acted as passive databases, requiring manual interactions to deliver insights.

Here is what I used to do when I wanted to know who within my network had changed roles recently:

OLD PROCESS:

→ Log into Clay CRM, export contacts as CSV

→ Clean and format data in a spreadsheet

→ Copy-paste formatted data into Claude

→ Manually instruct Claude to analyze job changes

→ Copy Claude's insights back to Clay

→ Update contact records individually

→ Manually set follow-up tasks for each contact

NEW PROCESS:

→ Simply instruct Claude: "Identify contacts in my network who recently changed jobs, showing their old and new positions and when I last interacted with them."

→ Claude directly accesses Clay via MCP

→ Finds contacts who've recently changed jobs

→ Instantly provides a detailed, actionable list

The results aren't perfect, but they turned a previously tedious process into an effortless query.

The technical setup took 5 minutes:

→ Generated a Clay API key

→ Connected through Clay's Smithery page

→ Installed Node.js locally

→ Ran one terminal command

→ Restarted Claude, confirming integration

MCP's power comes from three shifts:

→ From isolated silos to interconnected intelligence

→ From sequential tasks to seamless orchestration

→ From human middleware to direct and automated interactions

While it is early days, I believe we are scratching the surface with what is possible.

I'm now working with several of our portfolio companies to explore how we can do deeper AI integrations.

In an age where everyone has access to similar AI tools, the real competitive advantage isn't the tool itself.

It's how deeply you embed it into your workflows.