Vibe coding is making software development look a lot simpler: you describe what you need, AI generates the code, you test the result, and then you ask for changes in plain language.
That opens up interesting possibilities for companies that would never have even considered building an app before.
But it also raises an important question:
Can you really build your business software just by talking to an AI?
The short answer: you can build far more than you could before, but that doesn't mean every system should be built that way.
What is vibe coding?
The term vibe coding started catching on in 2025 to describe a way of developing software where a person explains what they want and an AI writes much of the code.
Instead of manually coding every screen, button or feature, you can ask for things like:
“Build an app to log customers, save quotes and show this month's sales.”
Then you test what it generated and keep going:
“Add a filter by sales rep.”
“Now let me export the report to Excel.”
“Make it work better on mobile.”
Modern tools can already create features, edit multiple files, run tests and work across entire projects, so this goes well beyond asking ChatGPT for a code snippet.
What can you build with vibe coding today?
For small projects, the possibilities are pretty broad.
For example:
- An internal calculator.
- A small dashboard to look up information.
- A form connected to a database.
- A prototype for a new idea.
- A simple internal app.
- A tool to organize information.
- A web page or microsite.
- A first version of a system to validate a process.
This is where vibe coding can make a lot of sense.
In the past, validating an idea could mean hiring developers before you even knew whether anyone would actually use it. Now you can build a first version much faster and find out whether the problem is worth solving.
And that may be one of its most interesting uses for a business: testing before investing more.
The problem starts when the prototype becomes a system
Imagine you built a small app to log customer requests.
Two people start using it.
Then five.
Then you need user accounts, permissions, files, reports, notifications and a connection to another system.
Eventually it holds customer data and becomes part of day-to-day operations.
At some point, it stopped being a test.
Now you have software your business depends on.
And that changes the conversation completely.
A business application doesn't just have to “work.” It also has to account for security, backups, permissions, maintenance, performance, errors, growth and what happens when you need to change it six months from now.
That's exactly why professional AI coding tools include permission controls, sandboxing, reviews and security practices. Both OpenAI and Anthropic document these kinds of controls to reduce the risks of letting an agent modify files or take actions automatically.
Vibe coding is not the same as professional AI-assisted development
This distinction matters.
A developer can also use AI to write code.
In fact, it's becoming more and more common.
The difference lies in who understands and validates what's being built.
If the AI generates a feature and someone reviews its architecture, security, data, tests and consequences before it goes live, we're talking about AI-assisted development, not simply trusting that the result works.
The problem isn't that AI writes the code.
The problem is when nobody really knows what it wrote.
Martin Fowler, a well-known authority on software engineering, makes exactly this distinction and warns that pure vibe coding may work better for temporary or limited-scope software than for systems where maintenance, security and reliability matter.
So, when should you use vibe coding?
It can be a great option when you want to:
- Test an idea.
- Build a prototype.
- Automate something small.
- Solve a personal need.
- Create a low-risk internal tool.
- Validate how a process should work.
- Build a first version before investing more.
It can also help you explain an idea more clearly.
Saying:
“I need a quoting system.”
is very different from showing up with a small working app and saying:
“This is what I want, but now we need to build it properly for the whole company.”
That can save a lot of time during a project's discovery phase.
And when should you be more careful?
If the app will handle money, sensitive information, customers, real inventory, critical processes, multiple users or integrations with other systems, it's no longer enough to ask whether it “works.”
You also need to know whether it's built well.
Before you decide, run through this quick assessment:
Is vibe coding a good fit for this project?
Check the statements that apply to what you want to build.
That doesn't mean you have to give up on AI.
Quite the opposite.
The biggest opportunity probably lies in combining both: the speed of AI with engineering judgment and business know-how.
AI changes how we build software; it doesn't eliminate engineering
Vibe coding is dramatically lowering the barrier to turning an idea into software.
And that's a good thing.
A company can experiment, test processes and build tools it probably never would have tried to develop just a few years ago.
But as an app becomes more important to your operations, knowing what's behind it becomes more important too.
That's why the right question may not be:
“Can AI build my system?”
But rather:
“How important will this system be to my business if it works?”
If it's just a test, experiment.
If it ends up running an important part of your company, then it's worth treating it as professional software.
At LoboGeek we use AI as part of our development process, but deciding how to build a solution still starts with the problem, the users and the project's level of risk.
Sometimes you need custom development.
Sometimes an automation.
And sometimes, a small AI-built prototype is more than enough.