AI & MCP

Making sense of the AI control plane

Nolan Sullivan

April 24, 2026 - 1 min read

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“AI control plane” has gone from a term almost nobody was using a year ago to a category that executives, boards, and security analysts are now talking about. Definitions vary widely though, and executives trying to navigate the space are getting a fragmented picture depending on who they ask.

We put together a reference to cut through that. It walks through what the layer actually does, the four capabilities it needs to cover (connect, secure, control, observe), the buyers driving the purchase, and the current vendor landscape. It’s aimed at C-suite readers trying to make sense of the category without wading through a pile of analyst reports.

If you’re evaluating platforms in this space, or trying to explain it to a board, it should give you a common vocabulary and a clean mental model to start from.