Vibe Coding… help!
I’m excited about all of the buzz around Vibe Coding, but…
What is vibe coding, in a nutshell?
Vibe coding is a new approach to software development that heavily relies on AI to generate code from natural language prompts. Instead of writing code directly, developers describe what they want the software to do using plain language, and the AI handles the code implementation. This method aims to make software creation more accessible and potentially faster, especially for simpler projects or prototypes.
Can I replace my dev team, or avoid bringing in a consultant, if I use vibe coding instead?
That would be nice, and is essentially the promise of vibe coding as a concept, but not really, no. Vibe coding is highly unlikely to replace an experienced development team. While AI-powered tools can assist in various coding tasks, they still require human expertise for complex projects, ensuring code quality, security, and maintainability. Vibe coding, or AI-assisted coding, is better viewed as a tool to augment human developers, not replace them.
Here are a number of reasons why you may not want to rely completely on vibe coding, and vibe coding tools, to get the job done right and meet your business needs.
Complexity and Critical Thinking:
Vibe coding excels at generating code for simpler tasks, but struggles with intricate logic, complex system design, and architectural decisions. Human developers are still needed to architect, debug, refactor, and optimize code for production environments.
Code Quality and Security:
AI-generated code can sometimes be inefficient, buggy, or even insecure. Experienced developers are crucial for reviewing and refining AI-generated code to ensure it meets quality standards and is free of vulnerabilities.
Long-Term Maintainability:
Vibe coding may produce code that is difficult to understand, maintain, and extend over time. Human developers are essential for writing clean, well-documented, and maintainable code that can evolve with the project.
Specific Domain Knowledge:
AI models may not be trained on all the specific technologies, libraries, or domain-specific knowledge required for a particular project. Human developers possess the expertise to leverage their knowledge and experience to overcome these challenges.
Ethical Considerations:
Vibe coding raises questions about intellectual property, bias in AI algorithms, and the potential for misuse of AI-generated code. Human oversight is necessary to address these ethical concerns.
Wait… is vibe coding actually bad?
Not necessarily…
In early phases or in creative work, vibe coding can be a smart way to move fast and find product-market fit. But if a company stays in that mode too long, it often ends up costing more.
Some companies are unintentionally "vibe coding," but not necessarily to save money — more often to move fast, stay lean, or due to a lack of resources and process.
Contemporary reasons why a company might pursue Vibe Coding (even if they don’t call it that):
1. Startups & Early-Stage Teams
Why? They need to ship fast, test ideas, and iterate quickly with limited funding.
Result: Developers code based on intuition and speed rather than strict processes. This looks a lot like “vibe coding.”
2. Understaffed or Low-Budget Teams
Why? Can’t afford full QA, DevOps, or formal architecture. So developers build everything themselves, often informally.
Result: They may skip documentation, tests, or code reviews to save time and money.
3. Agencies or Freelancers on Tight Timelines
Why? Clients want fast, affordable deliverables.
Result: Code might be designed to work now, not scale later — again, more vibes than structure.
Can vibe coding save me and my company a lot of money in the long run?:
Again, this would be nice and is often associated with vibe coding as a concept but, no, not really, for at least a few reasons…
Tech debt builds up. Vibe coding is iterative and requires constant prompt auditing and code adjustment. Quick fixes and “just getting it to work” today often mean expensive rework later.
Scalability suffers. What “feels right” now might break under growth - and for most businesses, growth is a major objective.
Onboarding becomes harder. No formal, audited docs or structure = pain for team members and consultants when something goes wrong or you want to add something complex that vibe coding doesn’t currently deliver.
Security isn’t a focus: Current AI coding tools focus on functionality over quality and as a result often miss important stability and security elements when building your application.
Vibe coding, the practice of using AI to generate code based on prompts, introduces significant security risks if not approached carefully. These risks stem from the potential for AI to introduce vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS, and insecure authentication, as well as the tendency for AI to hardcode credentials or introduce outdated dependencies. Furthermore, over-reliance on AI without proper review can lead to blind spots where vulnerabilities go undetected
Ok, I think I get the basics. Now what?
IF you are still interested in adding vibe coding to your business tool kit, and you want to talk to an expert about how to get started…
IF you already have a vibe coded solution but your team has reached their limits and could really use some backup…
THEN Contact the Apid Tech team…
OR schedule a no-cost consultation with one of our experts!
