A “Headless” approach to business applications leveraging custom UI

With the advent and advancement of AI and vibe-coding taking center stage, a wonderful possibility has opened up. This isn’t something new – it was always possible in theory, but it was a long shot to actually achieve.

“Headless” is a common term used to describe this idea:

• a. Core business applications continue to exist as they were.
• b. The UI/UX can be written using AI.
• c. This removes the necessity of being tied to the experience that came bundled with the business application.
• d. It helps your UI/UX be built around how you and your team want to work – surfacing the things that matter to your specific use cases.

While this opens up realistic possibilities and promising gains, it must be taken with a grain of salt and done the right way – weighing the outcomes against the risks. Not knowing the right approach gives way to disruption, putting reliability at risk.

What Goes Into Building a Headless Business Application Interface

Here’s how we approach designing workflows for the headless approach:

1. Identify the friction points —> areas where existing business applications fall short, such as a sluggish UI, ambiguous system usage, or an interface that’s too technical for business users.
2. Design around usability —>use these pain points to guide the UI you build, focusing on what matters most to the team.
3. Connect multiple systems —> this involves building your own “Operating System” that caters to your organization’s or team’s specific needs.
4. Bring the right expertise —>this requires solid knowledge of UI, controls, and how the existing business applications are actually implemented. Simply describing what you want often isn’t enough to make the functionality work as intended.

Our Preferred Approach for Microsoft Business Applications

At this point, Microsoft hasn’t announced a headless offering, so we built our own. Here’s what we chose, and why:

1. We used an Azure Static Web App / Single Page Application to host a simple HTML website.
2. It connects to systems we use, like Project Operations, Zoho, SharePoint, and Outlook.
3. We call it our “Operating System” because it brings together the areas we use most often into one place. We didn’t intend to replicate existing functionality – only to augment it for ease of use.
4. Entra ID controls access to the portal. We then built our own Settings area, giving users access to the specific areas that matter to them.
5. We used OData API calls, since they’re the fastest and most familiar option for Dynamics 365 developers.
6. We also used AI insights in targeted places – in the form of risk flags and a recommendation engine rather than expecting AI to act fully on our behalf. That said, we’re headed in that direction in the near future.
7. It was built using Claude Cowork (not even Claude Code), and it worked well. We used the Azure CLI to push and deploy our code to the Storage Account hosting the HTML files, supported by Azure Functions for the AI logic.

If the “Headless” Approach Is So Easy, Should Everyone Do It?

Here are a few things to consider:

1. While it may appear non-technical, this path should be approached carefully. UI/UX is a visual layer – what’s on the surface isn’t the same as what’s required for true functionality underneath.
2. Organizations often feel empowered to do this themselves, but this oversimplifies the problem. It isn’t long before they hit a wall without the original application architects involved in an advisory capacity.
3. The underlying business logic still belongs to the architects and administrators of the core systems. UI/UX doesn’t implement functionality – it sits on top of it.
4. “Reinventing” the entire application isn’t recommended. CRMs and ERPs involve deep technical architecture and expertise, built by corporations over years – they can’t simply be replicated just because the UI/UX layer makes it look that way.
5. When you hit that wall, you risk disrupting something in the actual application that you never intended to touch.
6. While TLS and basic auditing can be implemented through vibe-coding, industry-grade compliance – GDPR, SOC 2 / ISO 27001, PCI-DSS – requires enterprise-grade implementation that goes well beyond what a DIY build can offer.

To conclude, a headless approach to business applications has opened up a ton of possibilities. But it has to be implemented with caution and the right advisory support -not as a DIY shortcut just because the UI/UX can be described to AI and built quickly.

Done the right way, a headless approach preserves the integrity of your core systems, delivers genuine value for your use cases, and becomes an intentional addition to your existing stack – not just another UI you now have to maintain.

Build a UI that works the way your team does – without putting your core systems at risk. Connect with us at transform@cloudfronts.com to get started.