When ChatGPT arrived in late 2022, it kicked off an AI boom that hasn't stopped since and showed how powerful natural-language tools could be. Since then, we've seen chatbots, copilots and AI agents move into everyday tech.

Vibe coding describes a new way of building software where you prompt an AI model with a line of text and it generates most of the code. Even people with zero programming experience can create apps and full websites by describing what they want in natural language, aka "vibe coding."

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Andrej Karpathy, an AI researcher and Tesla's former director of AI and a member of OpenAI's founding team, coined the term in early 2025, describing it as a workflow where you "fully give in to the vibes" and stop worrying about the code itself. The phrase spread quickly and was so generally accepted across developer circles that Collins Dictionary named vibe coding its Word of the Year.

Y Combinator data from the Winter 2025 batch also shows how quickly things are shifting. About 25% of the startups had codebases built almost entirely by AI.

How vibe coding works

Vibe coding turns software development into a conversation. Instead of typing functions, arranging files or building components, you describe your idea to an AI tool using plain language. You might say, "I want to create a skincare blog with a homepage, an articles page and a basic editor so I can add new posts." The AI generates the framework, logic and user interface. You open the project, test it, see what works and refine your prompt to make adjustments. You repeat the cycle until you're happy with the results. 

In this intention-driven development, you focus on the idea and the AI model handles most of the implementation.

Where beginners get stuck

That doesn't mean anyone instantly knows what to do with raw code. Even though vibe coding removes the need to understand syntax, it doesn't remove the need for basic computer literacy. A beginner won't automatically know where code goes or what to do with it. 

Vibe coding replaces the technical knowledge of how to write software but not the procedural know-how of how to operate the tools that run it. These platforms simplify the process, but newcomers still need step-by-step guidance for basic actions, like creating a project, opening the correct file, pasting in the code and previewing the result. 

Sam Dhar, former engineering leader at Adobe and Amazon Alexa and now leading AI Platform at Galileo AI, tells CNET that someone has to always work to evaluate it and very carefully understand what was produced and make decisions on it and then change things and move them around. 

"Only someone who has that knowledge and experience can truly effectively use AI to be able to build things that are production-ready," Dhar says.

Dhar describes real software as a pyramid of decisions, from tiny UI choices like a button color and shape, to high-level questions like who the app is for and how many users it should handle. In his view, you still need teams beneath a lead architect, because not every decision can be spelled out in one giant prompt to a model.

Tools that support vibe coding

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Cursor and GitHub Copilot Workspace are some of the many tools you can use to get code with limited free use. With those tools, you can also generate entire apps, fix bugs, extend features and rewrite codebases using natural language.

If you ask one of those AI tools to create code for you, you will still need to know what to do with that code, like how to copy and paste it into a text editor, then save it into a file (.html or .py) and run it on your own computer. This can be a hurdle if you have zero programming knowledge.  

Platforms like Bolt and Replit simplify these steps because you no longer paste code anywhere. The AI chat interface generates the entire project inside the editor, sets up the structure and allows you to request changes in plain language. You can publish a working site using the platform's free URL without paying for a custom domain or hosting, all without seeing or touching raw code. Both platforms offer free limited plans.

However, the cost of that convenience is lower visibility into how the system actually works. And if you're a perfectionist like I am, you might end up investing hours to tweak your prompts and correct the code to get it to do what you want -- or not, because in my case, I ran out of free tokens.

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Most platforms provide a free public URL, so you don't need a paid domain or hosting unless you want a custom domain. You can also add a domain you already own. From there, if you want it to feel like a real mobile app, the easiest way for both iOS and Android is to turn it into a progressive web app by opening it in your phone's browser and tapping Add to Home Screen. It takes 10 seconds, costs nothing and needs no approval.

Getting it into the actual app stores is different. iOS is hard for beginners because you need a Mac, Apple's Xcode software, an Apple Developer account ($99/year) and manual building and testing. Android is simpler with a one-time $25 Google fee and no Mac required, and you can build and upload directly from Replit or Bolt via Expo in a few clicks and publish your app in hours.

The difference between vibe coding, no-code and traditional programming

In traditional programming, you have to understand everything you write. And you write every line in languages like JavaScript, Python or C++, build the logic yourself and control the structure of the entire system. You also carry the responsibility for debugging, performance and security.

No-code tools like Webflow and Notion let you assemble software through visual interfaces instead of code. They're useful for websites, small Customer Relationship Management systems and internal dashboards, but they limit you to whatever structures the platform supports. Technically you're building software but only inside predefined templates.

With vibe coding, you focus on the outcome not the implementation. Instead of typing code or dragging components around, you describe what you want in plain language and the AI generates the framework, interface and behavior. 

Here is an example of a website I started building with just a few prompts using Replit:

What you can build with vibe coding

Developers use vibe coding to generate prototypes and replace repetitive work. Beginners use it to build things they would never attempt with traditional programming, like a recipe organizer, to-do list, microblog, budgeting tool or basic notes app. 

Dhar said the real constraint isn't what AI can generate but rather what humans can realistically review. He advises keeping vibe-coded projects "small and controlled" so someone with enough experience can inspect every decision before it ships.

Some people try simple games, browser extensions and quick utilities for cleaning up files, but a few of these come with caveats. A browser extension, for example, still has to be loaded through the browser's settings, so someone with no technical background may need guidance even if the AI tool generates all the code.

Once you get the basics down, AI can solve some of these problems for you. But not all hoped for benefits come to fruition as you can see in my attempt to create an X post refiner in the image below. It took me several hours of back-and-forth prompting only to get it to work in the Gemini Canvas but not as an HTML file.

The limits and risks

Vibe coding works best for prototypes, throwaway projects, personal tools and experiments. Because beginners often don't understand the generated logic, errors and security issues can be hard to spot. Some projects become difficult to maintain because the AI mixes patterns or creates code that is technically correct but hard to read. 

Vibe-coding tools rely on LLMs, so they can also hallucinate code the same way chatbots hallucinate answers. That's manageable in a small side project but far more serious in apps that handle user data, require strict security controls or support many users at once.

We are not yet ready to vibe-code our way into production-grade systems. Anything that needs long-term stability or strong security still requires real engineering not vibe coding. A vibe-coded app may look polished on the surface, but hidden bugs often show up only after you use it more.

Why vibe coding took off

People who couldn't code before can now build simple apps. Developers who normally spend hours writing every code line can now save time by just describing what they need. Low-code showed what building software with less code could look like, then AI said, "Hold my beer." 

If you can articulate an idea, you can build the first version of it. If you can't, AI will even help you create a vibe prompt to generate the code. It becomes the builder, bridging the gap between intention and implementation. 

Programming has long been considered an elite skill, and AI is reshaping it just as it's reshaping many other jobs. But skilled developers don't have to run for their money just yet because they're the ones who can identify issues and correct them when the AI gets things wrong. 

"Maybe we might not need as many programmers to do the same amount of work as we used to, but that still requires a lot of skill and a lot of experience to be able to evaluate whatever you're producing," Dhar says. "AI is… never going to be able to replace humans because there has to be accountability."

Still, it is now far easier for anyone to take a swing at building something, even without a technical background, and that alone is a big change.