Recently awarded the 2025 word of the year by Collins Dictionary, vibe-coding has caught on as the latest AI trend.
Many organizations are jumping on the bandwagon and proposing their own vibe led workplace processes, from vibe-working and vibe-marketing to vibe-automation, with varying degrees of success.
RVP for UKI at OutSystems.
“Vibe” is used increasingly to refer to processes in the workplace that are based on intuition and put creativity first.
This is made possible for developers through the power of AI tools; with vibe-coding, developers are guided by ideas and impulses, and the support of language models means code emerges almost incidentally.
It's less about structured programming as technical complexity fades into the background.
However, what is lost when quality and security controls are no longer prioritized? Also, if vibe-coding becomes a mainstay in software development, the requirements of developers will fundamentally change. With AI and developers collaborating side-by-side, the future of coding is set for a profound shift.
Democratizing software development
With AI taking on the technical burden, vibe-coding opens new software development opportunities for people without in-depth programming knowledge. Besides the benefits of speed and simplicity from AI that we are all familiar with by now, vibe-coding democratizes programming by reducing the barrier to entry.
Minimal manual coding means less-technical users can simply prompt an AI assistant, meanwhile more experienced developers can spend their time fine-tuning and experimenting.
Vibe-coding means the time-intensive task of writing lines of code is replaced with time to brainstorm, experiment and prioritize creativity. The developer therefore takes on a more creative role and has the opportunity to lead innovation for the company.
What’s more, ideas can be implemented more quickly with vibe-coding so the organization will benefit from an accelerated development process.
The cost of creativity
However, while vibe-coding was designed to deliver code quickly it was not designed with long-term security, maintenance and scalability in mind.
In fact, studies show that vibe-coding can lead to increased complexity and re-work down the track or, in the worst-case scenario, low-quality “workslop”. So, time saved now creates inefficiencies later.
This is especially true when developers implement the AI-generated code without review. However, as AI greatly increases the volume of output at speed, manually auditing that amount of code becomes a daunting or perhaps even infeasible task.
Without human review mistakes fall through the gaps, and mistakes within lines of code can be taken advantage of by hackers. For example, attackers can exploit a typo in a package name to inject manipulated libraries. Then, if undetected, the user is unknowingly incorporating malicious code into company systems.
Because in the vibe-coding environment dependencies are often managed automatically, the attack surface of an enterprise increases significantly. A study by OutSystems found 62% of IT professionals using AI in the development process experience growing challenges with security and governance.
Because AI-generated code can introduce errors and new security vulnerabilities, vibe-coding requires developers to be more stringent than ever before. These risks don’t just threaten product quality; they’re redefining what it means to be a developer.
The changing role of the developer
The more automated code generation becomes, the more quality assurance becomes a key responsibility of the developer. Roles within software development shift as operational implementation is left to AI and developers spend more time on quality assurance and the overarching structuring.
This requires a nuanced understanding of how to work with and prompt generative AI, as well as an awareness of its limitations. If vibe-coding is the chosen approach, developers must not rely blindly on AI but rather maintain their human authority to strategically leverage its strengths and compensate for its weaknesses.
The skills required of a software developer will also change due to vibe-coding. Take AI prompting as an example; it becomes imperative that the developer knows how to shape their input in a way that yields stable and reproducible results.
It’s also important to consider the ethical responsibility that falls on the developer when acting on behalf of AI. Who deals with the consequences if AI-generated code violates license terms? Or infringes intellectual property if it has been trained with publicly accessible source codes?
What’s more, boundaries between software development roles are blurring, developers are increasingly taking on tasks that previously fell under product own
The developer is shifting from execution to oversight, becoming an AI strategist who ensures the AI-generated code remains as ethical and secure as when designed by humans.
Low-code solution
Vibe-coding undoubtedly allows for creative freedom and faster output; however, this value is only felt long-term if supported by clear quality standards, technical expertise and an awareness of the limitations of generative AI systems.
Low-code platforms are the perfect complement as they create structured environments for the secure integration of vibe-coding. Low-code platforms guarantee that governance, scalability and long-term maintenance are prioritized by design. Then vibe-coding can generate creative freedom within those parameters.
Companies pursuing this hybrid approach can leverage the full potential of vibe-coding without losing control. The clearly defined processes of an AI-powered low-code platform provide the necessary guardrails to vibe-coding to ensure long-term reliability.
Vibe-coding in its current iteration is not the future of software development. The next era of development blends AI-driven agility with the structural foundations enterprise needs. Developers evolve from routine coders to AI facilitators and humans and machines work side-by-side to innovate at scale with confidence.
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