Vibe Coding Changed My Business. And Worried Me.
When anyone can build software by describing what they want, the bottleneck shifts from code to imagination. That's both thrilling and terrifying.
Six months ago, I built my first piece of software. I am not a developer. I have never written production code. I built it using a combination of natural language prompts, AI code generation, and a lot of trial and error. It works. It runs. It saves me three hours a week.
The experience changed my business. And it worried me.
What vibe coding actually is
Vibe coding — a term coined by OpenAI researcher Andrej Karpathy — refers to building software primarily through natural language, using AI to generate and iterate on code. The developer describes what they want in plain English, the AI generates code, the developer tests and refines through conversation. Technical skill is helpful but no longer a strict prerequisite.
For non-technical founders and professionals like me, this represents a fundamental shift. The technical moat that separated "people who can build things" from "people who can only buy things" has shrunk dramatically. The barrier to creating software solutions has dropped from "years of programming education" to "clear thinking and good judgment."
How it changed my business
The practical impact was immediate. I built a client intake system that automated the questionnaire, document collection, and meeting scheduling I had been doing manually for each new client. I built a content management system tailored exactly to my workflow. I built a research tool that aggregates and summarizes sources I specify.
None of these would have been practical to commission from a developer — too small, too specific, too likely to need ongoing adjustment. None were available as off-the-shelf products. They exist because I can now build what I need, in the form I need it, and iterate on it without waiting for anyone.
Why it worried me
The worry is the inverse of the opportunity. If I can build custom software with limited technical skills, the technical skill premium is eroding. But more broadly: the threshold at which someone can create something that looks functional and professional has dropped so dramatically that the world is about to be flooded with tools, products, and services built by people who understand the surface behavior without understanding the underlying system.
This is already happening in software, and it will spread. The question it raises is not whether we should use these capabilities — we should — but how we maintain quality, safety, accountability, and depth in a world where anyone can build anything quickly.
Vibe coding is a genuine power. It demands genuine responsibility. We are not yet sure what that responsibility looks like at scale, and the speed of adoption means we may be building the consequences before we have the frameworks to manage them.