What Is an AI Control Plane?
An AI control plane is the layer where a company manages how AI agents reach company systems: which tools are approved, which people and agents can use them, how they sign in, and where every action is recorded. It sits between AI assistants and company apps, so the rules apply the same way whichever assistant is used. Metorial Workforce is an AI control plane for tool access, with portals, groups, per-user sign-in, one MCP URL per person, and logs.
"Control plane" is a networking term for the part of a system that decides where traffic goes, as opposed to the part that carries it. Applied to AI, it is the layer that decides what agents are allowed to do in company systems, and it has become the standard way analysts describe governed AI rollouts.
What does an AI control plane manage?
The catalog. Which integrations, MCP servers, and shared workflows are approved.
Who can use what. Groups and policies that allow or deny each tool per team, plus identities for agents that act on someone's behalf.
Sign-in and credentials. How people and agents authenticate to company apps, ideally each with their own account so no key is shared.
The endpoint. One place assistants connect to, so switching assistants does not mean redoing access.
The record. A log of every tool call with the tool, arguments, result, and the person or agent behind it.
How is it different from the apps' own permissions?
Each app still enforces its own permissions. The control plane decides whether an agent can reach the app at all, which of its tools are exposed, and records the call. With per-user sign-in the two layers stack: the control plane decides which tools, the app decides which records.
Why are companies adopting them now?
Because agents moved from answering questions to taking actions. A chat assistant that only reads what someone pastes in needs little control. An agent that can update the CRM or post to Slack needs someone to decide what it may do and a record of what it did. Microsoft now calls Agent 365 "the control plane for agents", and analysts describe the same layer.
Where does Metorial fit?
Metorial Workforce is a control plane for how agents reach company tools. Admins manage portals, integrations, skills, groups, accounts, and agents in one place. People sign in and connect their own accounts, assistants connect through Magic MCP, and Tracing records every call. It works across Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and Copilot.
It does not route model calls or manage LLM spend. If that is your main problem, pair it with an LLM gateway.
Frequently asked questions
Is an AI control plane the same as an MCP gateway?
An MCP gateway is usually the part of a control plane that tool calls pass through. The control plane is broader: it includes the catalog people choose from, the groups and policies, agent identities, and the logs.
Is an AI control plane the same as an LLM gateway?
No. An LLM gateway manages calls to models, such as routing and spend. A control plane for tools manages what agents can do in company systems. Some companies need both.
Do we need a control plane for one AI assistant?
Once more than one team uses it with company apps, yes. The need comes from multiple people and systems, not from the number of assistants.
Who runs the AI control plane?
Usually IT or a platform team, with security reviewing the logs and team leads requesting tools for their teams.
Can an AI control plane run on our own servers?
Depending on the vendor. Metorial is open core and can run on-prem on the Enterprise plan.