Online searches for the term have grown, and it is easy to see why: the promise is to turn an idea described in words into a working application. That promise often surfaces in two opposing questions: Can you build our product with AI in two days? and Should we worry that AI will make developers obsolete?
The short answer is that vibe coding is a real tool with real uses, but it is not (yet, and perhaps never will be) a substitute for thoughtful software development. Here is why.
What is vibe coding?
The term was coined in early 2025 by Andrej Karpathy, one of the founders of OpenAI, to describe a way of programming by going with the flow: you describe the result you want in natural language, an AI model generates the code, you see whether it works, ask for a correction, and iterate. You do not read (or fully understand) every line it generates. You judge the software by its behavior rather than by its implementation.
Many online tools have made this process accessible even to people who have never written a function. In a sense, it is the same principle behind the AI agents now appearing in other areas of business: delegate a complex task by describing the goal rather than the procedure.
Why is everyone talking about it now?
Three factors have come together.
First, language models have become capable enough to generate code that compiles and works on the first attempt, not just fragments that need manual fixes.
Second, the tools have become more accessible, with interfaces designed for non-technical users.
Third, and perhaps most interestingly, AI is changing how people actually work across many roles. It is affecting not only developers but also designers who are rethinking their role in workflows increasingly supported by generative tools.
Today, a product manager, founder, or marketer can build an initial prototype alone that would previously have taken a technical team weeks. That is a real change, not just hype. Understanding where its limits lie matters just as much as recognizing the opportunity.
Where vibe coding really works
It is worth being clear about this, because the point is often dismissed too quickly: for some use cases, vibe coding is the right tool.
Validating an idea before investing in it
Build a clickable MVP in a few hours to see whether a product idea has potential, before writing a business plan or involving a development team.Usability-test prototypes
A working interface shown to real users is worth more than ten slides. If its only purpose is to gather feedback, it does not need a robust architecture.Disposable internal tools
A dashboard for a three-day event or a script that automates a repetitive task: when the lifecycle is short and the data is not sensitive, the risk is low and the time saved is real.
What these cases have in common is that the software does not need to last, scale, or operate in a high-risk setting. It is temporary by design, just as a sketch is to an architectural project. The same principle applies when designing an interface for the people who will actually use it: usability becomes a driver of productivity only when it is tested in the right context.
Where vibe coding is not enough
This is the point we care most about clarifying as a software company, because it is where we have seen the most businesses run into trouble.
Technical debt is invisible until the bill comes due. Code generated without a real architecture tends to accumulate inconsistent decisions: the same logic duplicated in different places, dependencies added without a clear reason, and no separation between parts of the system. You may not notice while the product is small, but adding a feature becomes difficult when every change risks breaking something else. It is exactly the difference between code that is an asset and code that is a liability: an investment that grows in value, or a cost that quietly mounts.
Security is not a detail to add later. Input validation, error handling, and data protection are choices a generative model can implement when explicitly asked, but they rarely emerge on their own in a describe-and-generate workflow. There is a deeper methodological issue too: the privacy by design required by the GDPR assumes data protection is planned from the first line of code, not bolted on afterward. That is almost the opposite of vibe coding's strength: getting something working as fast as possible and sorting out the details later.
Think twice before letting a prototype built from a prompt handle real data. We discussed this in Where do I put my business data? The same applies to organizations within the scope of NIS2, for which documented technical and organizational security measures are a legal obligation. And for companies working specifically with artificial intelligence, the European AI Act introduces specific obligations for systems used in business.
What works in a demo may not work in production. A product that runs with five test users may fail with 5,000: performance, load management, and reliability are disciplines in their own right, and they rarely appear by chance after a few prompt-driven iterations.
If no one really understands the code, every bug costs more than the time originally saved. That may be the least visible and most expensive risk. When it is time to change, integrate, or scale the software, whoever takes over, often a different team from the one that generated it, must first work out how it all fits together.
Vibe coding vs. custom development: how to choose
This is not a choice between right and wrong. It is about matching the tool to the goal. A useful way to compare the two approaches is to ask:
Goal: vibe coding validates an idea; custom development launches and grows a product.
How it is built: vibe coding relies on isolated prompts without structured review; custom development can use AI within a process that includes analysis, architecture, and testing.
Data involved: vibe coding is best suited to non-sensitive data; a production product may need to handle customer data, payments, and critical business information.
Need to scale: not yet, or not at all, for a throwaway prototype; yes, or probably, for a product intended to grow.
Who maintains it: perhaps no one in particular for a prototype; a team that must understand and evolve it for a lasting product.
When your answers point toward the second approach, the question changes from How can I generate this faster? to Who will build it to last? It is the same distinction at the heart of our guide to custom software and off-the-shelf solutions. Vibe coding adds a third option to that comparison; it does not replace it.
That is why, when a project stops being an experiment and becomes a product a business depends on, we approach custom software development with an architecture designed to last, not just a prompt.
Our approach
We are not skeptical of AI in development tools. We use it ourselves to speed up parts of the work, from writing repetitive code to testing. The difference is where we put it: inside a structured process, not in place of the process. Our way of working has clear stages: analysis, design, development, maintenance, and evolution. A product that needs to last does not emerge from a single round of prompting, but from technical decisions tested one by one, with someone accountable for them.
In this model, AI accelerates each stage; it is not a way to skip them. Vibe coding is neither a fad to dismiss nor a revolution that makes software development unnecessary. It is a powerful way to validate an idea quickly, with equally clear limits once that idea must become a real, secure product that can grow. Knowing which stage you are at is often more important than the tool you choose.
Frequently asked questions
Will vibe coding replace developers?
No. It shifts work from writing code line by line to reviewing, architecting, and securing what AI generates. Those tasks still require solid technical experience.
Can I use vibe coding to launch my startup?
Yes, to validate an idea with a quick MVP. No, if the product must handle sensitive data, scale beyond its first users, or keep running without being rewritten from scratch.
Is vibe coding safe for business software?
Not by default. Without expert human review, generated code can miss security checks, error handling, and regulatory requirements.
How is vibe coding different from low-code and no-code?
Low-code and no-code assemble predefined components within the constraints of a platform. Vibe coding generates source code from prompts: fewer constraints, but also fewer built-in guarantees.
