Why GUI May Give Way to AI Agents: Analysis Using MCP and Billing as an Example

Product manager of Selectel's billing platform shares experience: GUI of fintech products suffers from the dilemma of simplicity versus universality — simple interfaces do not cover all scenarios, while universal ones overload the user. He proposes an alternative: Model Context Protocol (MCP), which allows AI agents to directly access product data and functions, translating user intent into actions. Instead of learning navigation, the user simply asks, "Do I have enough money until the end of the week?" The author built an MCP server for Selectel billing — a simple experiment, not a production-level product. The server can check balances, forecasts, top up the account, create payment links, and generate reports. Tests were conducted using the open-source agent Hermes via Telegram: the agent autonomously determines context, checks balance, creates background tasks (cron jobs) for recurring payments, and builds infographics of expenses. The author believes that in the future, an MCP server could become the primary way to interact with the product, while the GUI remains just one of the clients.