Have you heard of Vibe Coding? From what I gather, it is what happens to software programming or coding when you bring Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) into the picture. Can you guess what it is now? Full marks to you, if you guessed that it is a technique wherein a person describes the problem in a few sentences via a prompt to an LLM (Large Language Model) tuned for coding. For those unsure of what an LLM is, Chat GPT is one. Using AI to generate code, even if you don’t know the nitty gritties of coding, seems to be the next frontier of coding. It is called Vibe Coding.
The LLM tuned for coding generates software without the programmers having to key in the code for it, using just the conversational prompts instead. This would be the sort of time that could potentially send professional coders running helter skelter in panic. AI is now after their jobs!! Will AI never stop? Jokes aside, these are actually exciting times for programmers, coders and absolute amateurs like me and perhaps you. With Vibe Coding, the role of programmers is changing from manual coding to guiding, testing and refining the AI-generated code.
This means 2 things. Firstly, people who made a living from monotonous coding mindlessly will most definitely have to up their game and learn to start applying themselves to avoid becoming redundant. Secondly, this extends the skill of software creation beyond just expert software engineers. Does all this sound familiar?
This is exactly what has happened to the skills of writing and designing. The introduction of Gen AI democratises creativity and production. It also forces those who consider themselves to be experts at it, to actually be experts beyond the base level task of creating something. People now have to hone their ability to revise, curate, and improve on what AI generates. Anyone who is under the notion that gen AI will take care of our jobs is in for a rude shock. And anyone who thinks that gen AI will double the expectations of people is – absolutely right. Not double the quantity. Double the quality. In fact gen AI gives us the power to improve the quality infinitely.
In malayalam, my native tongue, a commonly heard Gen Z way of describing something worth their while is with the phrase, “ vibe aanu, bro!” Which translates to “it is a vibe, bro!”. I only know of it, despite being a millennial because I hear it on Reels by Gen Z Malayali instagrammers and also in Malayalam Radio Spots. This word ‘Vibe’ is an interesting reflection of a cultural marker across the world. ‘Good Vibes Only’ is another catchphrase that’s made its way to gym walls and on t-shirts. It’s all about the ‘vibe’. Vibe coding too is about the vibing with LLMs to generate code.
A co-founder of Open AI, Andrek Karpathy is credited with coining the term Vibe Coding just a few months ago, in early 2025. Karpathy used it to refer to a system of programming where we don’t technically do the coding per se, “It’s not really coding – I just see things, say things, run things, and copy-paste things, and it mostly works.” Vibe coding is the method of giving conversational, voice commands to Gen AI that in turn generates the actual code.
What does Vibe Coding tell us about the vibe of the future? Well skills – no matter which ones – are becoming quicker, easier and cheaper to access for beginners and experts alike. In other words, one no longer will need to spend years perfecting and specialising in a skill to be able to bring their ideas to life. This is freeing up human hands and minds for creativity, experimentation, discovery and innovations. More walls break down. The divide between ‘those who can’s and ‘those who can not’s is gone. With that, the license to arrogance for being smarter, more talented or more skilled is hereby revoked. One characteristic vibe of the coming times will be of unabashed humility and co-creation between native and artificial intelligence.
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