Tech By DB

Dilan Bhimani

What is Vibe Coding and Why does it Matter?

Technology often invents new words for old ideas, but every once in a while, a word comes along that represents a genuine change. Vibe coding is a word that represents a change. Andrej Karpathy first coined the word in early 2025 to describe a type of programming where a programmer essentially talks to an AI model, generates code, and then continually guides the AI with prompts rather than writing the code by hand.

This sounds preposterous at first. Programming has always been a precise art form that requires logic and technical expertise. Vibe coding sounds like the complete opposite. But the fact that it sounds so different from the traditional view of programming is exactly why the word represents a change. Programming can be done a different way now.

What vibe coding actually means

Vibe coding isn’t exactly the use of AI for programming. Programmers have been doing that for a while already. What’s different about the vibe coding type of programming is the level of trust that a programmer puts into the AI model. Instead of asking the AI to write a small part of the program or to correct a small part of the code, the programmer essentially tells the AI what they want to do, accepts the majority of the code that the AI generates, tests the code, and then continually guides the AI with prompts.

This change is important because it reduces the threshold for creating things. An individual with an idea can create a program, automate a workflow, or create a small application quickly. Much of the implementation detail is taken care of by the AI, while the user focuses on intent, correction, and iteration.

Why people are excited about it

The excitement about vibe coding is easy to understand. It’s the speed factor. An idea that existed only inside a person’s head can be turned into something visible quickly. No longer do users need to waste hours searching for information, creating a foundation for a program, or debugging the fundamental structure of the application. They can go straight into creating something. This is a huge deal for prototypes, side projects, internal tools, landing pages, small games, or proof-of-concept applications.

Another exciting factor about vibe coding is that it allows non-experts to create software without needing to learn all the programming concepts first. Programming concepts are not rendered useless by this, but software creation is easier than it used to be.

Where vibe coding is most useful

Vibe coding is most useful in situations where speed is a priority over perfection. Some of the most useful situations for vibe coding include:

Rapid prototypes where the goal is to test an idea quickly.

Internal tools where the goal is to create something quickly.

UI scaffolding where the AI can create the front end quickly.

Bug fixes or refactoring where the goal is to automate repetitive tasks.

Small personal projects where the goal is to create something quickly.

Learning and exploration, where the AI is asked to explain, generate, and revise the code all at the same time.

This is why coding agents and AI development tools have received so much attention. Anthropic claims that Claude Code is a tool that can read the codebase, edit the files, run commands, and even build features or fix bugs across multiple files. Similarly, Codex by OpenAI has been claimed to handle the coding needs of the user and speed up the development process.

Where vibe coding fails

However, the catch is that software is not just made to look like it is working. It needs to work. It needs to be reliable, secure, understandable, and maintainable. This is where vibe coding fails.

It is possible for the AI to generate code in a way that looks correct but is, in fact, wrong. It could have security issues or bugs. It could have bad structure or unnecessary complexity. It could have dependencies that the user is unaware of. A demo may run perfectly well in front of an audience, but the actual software is held to a much higher standard.

This is the real problem with vibe coding. It is good for generating momentum. But momentum is not the same as quality.

Why human coding is necessary

This is the part of the process where the actual hype fails to deliver. The reason why human coding is necessary is that software is more than just the output. It is more than just the code. It is judgment.

In other words, the more powerful vibe coding gets, the more important the role of humans becomes. If the AI can generate ten times more code than before, then bad decisions are going to spread ten times faster than before. Therefore, the role of humans becomes more important, not less.

One of the best ways to think about this is to realize the following: vibe coding helps speed up the creation of software, and programmers are the ones who turn the generated code into real code.

The smartest way to use vibe coding

The smartest way to use vibe coding is not to blindly trust the AI, but to use it to accelerate the process and then use humans to review and think like engineers.

In other words, the smartest programmers are going to use the AI to generate the code and provide the initial approach, and then use humans to review and think like engineers.

The takeaway

Vibe coding matters because it represents a real change happening within the world of software development. Software development is becoming more conversational, more iterative, and more accessible to the average person. Therefore, the average person can go from idea to prototype faster than ever before.

But speed is only part of the story. The reason human coding still has importance is that software is not just about coding. Software is about understanding, making good decisions, and creating things that work well in the real world.

Vibe coding is a powerful tool, not magic. And I think the future doesn’t belong to humans or to machines. It belongs to those who are good at using both.

Sources

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *