Is the future of software development all about the 'vibe'?

For years, coding required deep knowledge of programming languages, careful debugging, and precise syntax. But in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), a new approach is emerging. Enter vibe coding!

What's vibe coding?

Dubbed "vibe coding" by Andrej Karpathy, co-founder of OpenAI and former AI lead at Tesla, this approach allows developers to describe their ideas to the AI system rather than writing code line by line.

Karpathy explains vibe coding as a process where you "fully give in to the vibes" and "forget the code even exists".

AI-powered coding assistance isn’t new. GitHub Copilot, launched in 2021, introduced developers to AI-assisted code completion. But recent advances in models such as Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet and OpenAI’s GPT-4, and tools like Cursor, Replit, and Bolt have taken it a step further.

Now, users with no prior coding experience can create anything from softwares to games by providing a simple prompt to the AI in natural language.

How vibe coding works?

Traditional coding requires knowledge of programming languages, debugging, and structuring code. Vibe coding, on the other hand, is more like talking to an AI assistant that understands your intent based on the prompt.

Here’s how it works:

Choose a tool: Select an AI-powered coding assistant such as Cursor, Replit, or Claude.

Describe your idea: Instead of manually writing code, users can articulate what they want to build in plain English.

Review the output: The AI generates the code, and you test the result.

Refine the results: If something needs tweaking or needs a new functionality, just describe the changes you want, and the AI makes them.

Deploy: The software can be deployed just like traditionally developed applications.

DeepLearning.AI recently launched a new course, Vibe Coding 101 with Replit, led by Andrew Ng, founder and CEO. The course explores Replit’s cloud-based development environment, featuring an integrated code editor, package manager, and deployment tools making AI-assisted coding more accessible than ever.

Who’s using vibe coding?

Although still in its early days, vibe coding is rapidly gaining traction.

In August 2024, Cursor reported 40,000 paying users, while GitHub Copilot had over 1.3 million users as of early 2024.

Vibe coding has become particularly popular for game development. Microsoft’s Peter Yang demonstrated how he built a 3D first-person shooter zombie game in hours, using only natural language prompts fed into Cursor and Claude 3.7 Sonnet. Just through conversation with the AI, Peter refined the prototype without writing a single line of code.

Why it matters?

Vibe coding is more than just a way to simplify software development, it’s changing how we interact with technology. What once took weeks or months to build can now be done in hours.

Even people without programming experience can create functional applications, while businesses and startups can prototype quickly without needing large engineering teams.

With AI managing the technical details, creators can focus more on their ideas and vision rather than execution.

However, sceptic warn of rising technical debt and the potential decline of traditional coding skills, raising questions about long-term sustainability.

What this means for programmers?

The rise of vibe coding raises an inevitable question: Will AI replace traditional programmers?

Not necessarily. Programming has always been about telling computers what to do, and that fundamental need isn't changing. What’s shifting is the way we communicate with machines.

As OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman said, AI is already handling more than 50 percent of coding work in some organisations. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has also suggested that AI will eventually replace mid-level engineers. But instead of eliminating the need for human developers, vibe coding is redefining what it means to be a programmer.