How to connect your company data to Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot

Last verified: 17 October 2026

Short answer

You connect company data to an AI assistant through a connector: a service the assistant calls to read data, and sometimes to change it, using your login. Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot Studio can all use connectors built on an open standard called MCP, but plans, admin steps and risks differ for each. A connector for one system also does not give you a combined view across several, so decide first which questions you need answered.

What a connector does, in plain language

An AI assistant cannot open your accounting system or your database by itself. A connector sits between the two. When you ask a question, the assistant calls the connector, the connector asks your system for the data using your login, and the result comes back into the chat.

Most connectors today use MCP, the Model Context Protocol, which its maintainers describe as an open-source standard for connecting AI applications to external systems. You do not need to know how it works. You need to know that a connector can usually do two different things: read data, and make changes, such as updating a product quantity. Those two need different rules.

Three routes: vendor connector, hosted service, or your own

There are three ways to get a connector. Most companies use a mix.

Route	Good for	Watch out for
Ready-made connector from your software vendor	Questions about one system. Setup is usually a sign-in and a permissions screen. Examples: Salla, Shopify, Zoho Books, NetSuite, Business Central and Odoo, whose own MCP server is set up with an API key.	It covers that one system only. Each connector has its own sign-in and its own rules.
Hosted connector service	Systems with no vendor connector, when you have no developer.	Your data passes through another company. Ask what it stores, who can see it and what it logs.
Build your own	Full control over what the assistant can see and do.	A developer must build and maintain it, and the server must be reachable by the assistant (see Common problems below).

Some systems have no vendor connector at all. Our Connect pages note what each system offers publicly.

Claude: who can add a connector and how

Claude supports custom connectors on the Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans. The Free plan is limited to one custom connector. Claude connects from Anthropic's cloud, not from your device, so the server must be reachable over the public internet. A server behind a VPN, a private network or a firewall will not connect unless you allow Anthropic's addresses. Anthropic's setup article has the details.

On Pro or Max

Go to Customize > Connectors.
Click + Add, then Add custom connector.
Enter a name and the remote MCP server URL, then click Continue.
Review the authentication settings Claude detected, change them if needed, then click Continue.
Click Add. In each chat, open the + button and switch the connector on under Connectors.

On Team or Enterprise

An Owner or Primary Owner adds the connector under Organization settings > Connectors: Add, then Custom, then Web. On Enterprise, a user with a custom role that includes "Manage access to Libraries" can do it too. After that, each person connects individually under Customize > Connectors, so Claude reaches only what that person is allowed to see. The exception is a connector set up with a shared credential: then everyone using it gets that credential's access, so use a limited one.

Claude also has a directory of ready-made connectors, which owners enable under Organization settings > Connectors. Each person still signs in to the third-party service themselves. See Anthropic's article on connectors.

ChatGPT: what is available on which plan

ChatGPT's menu names have changed more than once, so check the live page before you follow any steps, including ours. This is what OpenAI's help article on custom MCP servers said when we read it on 17 October 2026:

Business: full custom MCP connections are available. Only admins and owners can create and publish them for the workspace.
Enterprise and Edu: the same, with role-based access control. Admins can let chosen members create connections and choose who can use each app. Only admins and owners publish. After publishing, admins can switch individual actions on or off, and new actions start switched off.
Pro: you can connect custom servers with read and fetch permissions only. OpenAI says full MCP is for Business and Enterprise/Edu.
Plus: the article does not mention it. OpenAI's pricing page lists "Developer mode (beta)" for Plus and Pro, so test in your own account before you rely on it.

Custom connections work on ChatGPT on the web, not on mobile. In the current Plugins flow you do not need to switch on Developer mode first. You accept a risk warning for each server you add, and account and workspace policies still apply. Some vendor pages, such as Salla's, still describe the older path through Settings > Apps and Developer mode.

The steps, from OpenAI's article and its developer page:

Open Plugins, select the plus button, then choose Add custom MCP server.
Enter a name and, if you like, a description.
Under Connection, enter the server's public HTTPS address, including the /mcp path. Or choose Tunnel to use a Secure MCP Tunnel, which connects a private server without exposing it to the public internet.
Set up authentication, read the risk warning, and select "I understand and want to continue".
Select Create as a plugin, then review the tools ChatGPT found on the server.

Then start a new chat, type @ and pick the plugin. For actions that change data, ChatGPT may ask you to confirm, and OpenAI says some especially risky actions may be blocked instead. Once an admin has published a server, ChatGPT works from a frozen copy of its tools: changes made later on the server do not apply until an admin reviews and publishes an update.

Microsoft Copilot Studio: adding an MCP server to an agent

In Copilot Studio you build an agent and extend it with tools, including MCP servers. Two conditions come first: generative orchestration must be turned on, and the server must use the Streamable transport, because Copilot Studio no longer supports SSE for MCP after August 2025. It supports MCP tools and resources.

Open your agent and go to its Tools page.
Select Add a tool, then New tool, then Model Context Protocol. The setup wizard opens.
Enter the server name, a short description and the server URL. The description matters: the agent uses it to decide when to call the server.
Choose the authentication: None, API key (sent in a header or as a query parameter), or OAuth 2.0.
Select Create, then create a connection and select Add to agent.

Access to MCP servers in Copilot Studio relies on Power Platform connectors, so a data policy that regulates connectors also regulates the MCP server. That is useful: the data policies your Microsoft admin already manages can cover it. Microsoft's pages are Extend your agent with MCP and Connect your agent to an existing MCP server. Microsoft also notes that with a non-Microsoft server, you are responsible for the tools and resources you use.

Which route fits a company with several systems

Each vendor connector covers one system and one assistant, with its own sign-in and its own permissions. That works well for a question about one system. It works badly when the question spans your online store, your point-of-sale system and your accounting, because no single connector sees all three.

One system, simple questions: use the vendor's own connector.
Several systems and a technical team: build your own or use a hosted service, read-only first, with the same roles and logging on every connection.
Several systems and no technical team: ask a provider who runs the connections for you. Ask the same questions of them as of a hosted service.

Start from the questions, not the tools. Write down the five you ask every week, then check which systems hold the answers. Our guide on one report for all branches and channels shows how.

Keep it safe: read-only first, roles, approval, logs

Start read-only. Allow changes only after you have watched it work. Business Central, for example, ships with a read-only default, and an admin must switch on create, modify, delete or actions for each API object.
Use named access, not one shared key. NetSuite's connector does not support Administrator roles, and its queries respect the permissions of the role you sign in with. A shared credential in Claude gives everyone the same access.
Review approvals. Claude asks you to approve tool use. Click "Allow always" only for tools you trust, and note that in research mode connector tools run without further approval, so switch off tools that can write.
Keep a log you control. Vendors keep logs for different periods: NetSuite's execution log is kept for 21 days in production and 7 days in sandbox.
Connect only servers you trust. Anthropic warns that custom connectors reach services it has not verified, and that a malicious server can include hidden instructions.

If the data includes personal data about customers or staff, check with your legal adviser before you connect it. Read more in Is it safe to connect company data to AI? and AI that asks before it changes anything.

Common problems

The assistant cannot reach the connector

For Claude, the usual cause is a server on a private network or behind a firewall. Allow Anthropic's outbound range for MCP tool calls, 160.79.104.0/21, listed on Anthropic's IP addresses page. Remove the five older 34.162.x.x addresses if you allowed them, because Anthropic no longer uses them. For ChatGPT, use the Secure MCP Tunnel for a private server, or test a public address with MCP Inspector, as OpenAI suggests.

I cannot find the menu

Menu names change, and ChatGPT's have changed more than once. Search the vendor's help page for the current name. On Claude, check that you are on Customize > Connectors, and on Team or Enterprise that you are an Owner or hold the right role.

The connector exists but does not appear in my chat

In Claude, switch the connector on in each chat with the + button, then Connectors. On Team and Enterprise, an owner enabling a connector does not connect anyone: each person has to click Connect.

Copilot Studio will not accept the server

Check that generative orchestration is on and that the server speaks Streamable transport, not SSE.

Terms in plain language

Connector: A service the assistant calls to reach a system's data or actions, using your login.
MCP: Model Context Protocol, an open standard for connecting AI applications to external systems.
OAuth: A sign-in method that lets an app act for you without ever seeing your password.
Read-only: Access that can look at data but cannot create, change or delete anything.
Audit log: A record of who asked for what, in which system, and when.

Questions people ask

Do we need a developer?

Not for a vendor connector such as Salla's or Zoho Books', which you set up by signing in and approving permissions. For your own database or a system with no connector, yes, or a provider who runs it for you.

Can we connect more than one system?

Yes, but each connection stays separate, with its own sign-in and its own permissions. Claude's Free plan is limited to one custom connector.

Will the assistant change our data without asking?

Only if the connector allows changes. Claude shows tool approval requests, but "Allow always" removes that check and research mode skips it, so start read-only.

Which assistant is best for this?

That depends on where your people already work and which controls your admin needs. We compare the three in Claude, ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot for company data.

Where Vootlabs fits

Vendor connectors each cover one system and one assistant. A company with an online store, a point-of-sale system and an accounting system needs one set of roles, approvals and logs across all of them. Vootlabs is designed for that: it connects the systems a business runs on to AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, with access by role, approval before any change, and a full audit trail.

We are onboarding a limited number of companies in a design-partner programme. If you want one view across your systems, we would like to hear what you need.

Book a demo Join the design-partner programme

Sources

Plans and menu names change. Check the live vendor page before you act. All pages below were read on 17 October 2026 unless noted.

By the Vootlabs team. Last verified 17 October 2026.