The End of Front-End: Delivering Software via LLMs and the Model Context Protocol

What if the future of software delivery didn’t involve a user interface at all? With the rise of large language models (LLMs), we’re entering a new era where software can be consumed through natural conversation, not clicks. In this walkthrough, I’ll introduce the Model Context Protocol (MCP)—a new way to expose real-time, typed, dynamic data to LLMs, enabling them to act as intelligent, conversational front-ends for research software. I’ll demonstrate how to build a simple MCP server that exposes live data and commands to an LLM, transforming a traditional API into a human-friendly interaction. Along the way, we’ll look at what problems this approach is suited for, how it compares to conventional apps, and what design patterns are emerging. This session is designed for data scientists, engineers and researchers curious about combining conversational AI with real-world data and delivery workflows.A recording of this session is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/TFdJp0qccoc