---
title: "AI Agents In-Depth – Function Calling, MCP and Tool Use Under the Hood - Alan Smith - NDC AI 2026"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/ai-agents-in-depth-function-calling-mcp-and-tool-use-under-the-hood---alan-smith---ndc-ai-2026-u7mw2mfyq
source_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvcxa35_PMA
type: video:youtube
source: "NDC Conferences"
published: 2026-07-01T14:53:38.030Z
updated: 2026-07-01T14:53:59.660Z
tags: ["llm", "ai-agents", "mcp", "rag"]
reading_time: 61
upvotes: 1
comments: 0
language: en
---

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# AI Agents In-Depth – Function Calling, MCP and Tool Use Under the Hood - Alan Smith - NDC AI 2026

**[NDC Conferences](https://daily.dev/sources/ndc)** · 61 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A conference talk (NDC AI 2026) exploring how AI agents work under the hood, focusing on function calling, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and tool use. The speaker demonstrates how LLMs infer which tools to call based on tool definitions and system prompts — without directly executing the tools themselves. Live demos cover a pizza ordering agent, agentic RAG with Wikipedia, a vibe-coding copilot, and an MCP-based DJ server. Key topics include non-determinism in tool selection, token management in RAG, the distinction between function calling and MCP, security risks (tool trust, credit card data leakage, malicious MCP servers), and how to customize GitHub Copilot with skills and instructions.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvcxa35_PMA>

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Tags: [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#mcp](https://daily.dev/tags/mcp), [#rag](https://daily.dev/tags/rag)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-agents-in-depth-function-calling-mcp-and-tool-use-under-the-hood---alan-smith---ndc-ai-2026-u7mw2mfyq)