University of Kwazulu-Natal

4 Ways Every Small Business Should Be Using Vibe Coding

Bonisiwe Shabane
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4 ways every small business should be using vibe coding

In a sentence, vibe coding is the practice of writing software by describing what you want in natural language and letting AI handle much of the actual coding. People can now simply state their intent, and AI tools generate the necessary code, suggest improvements, and even debug errors. Rather than focusing on syntax and manual problem-solving, vibe coding is about iteratively prompting an AI assistant—such as GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, or Cursor—to generate, refine, and troubleshoot code. As AI expert Andrej Karpathy (the person who created the term “vibe coding”) put it: “It’s not really coding—I just see stuff, say stuff, run stuff, and copy-paste stuff, and it mostly works.” So, as the AI space has grown and AI-powered coding assistants have become more widely available and powerful, more and more people have been embracing vibe coding. Experienced developers are now able to automate repetitive tasks and speed up development, while non-technical people have a lower barrier to entry if they want to explore creating something on their own.

People can now simply state their intent, and AI tools generate the necessary code, suggest improvements, and even debug errors. But, what does vibe coding have to do with your small business? Well, let’s look at some use cases: Vibe coding for small business is transforming how entrepreneurs build software; no coding bootcamp or developer required. Imagine telling an AI about your dream app on Friday and launching it by Monday using plain English. For many small and medium-sized businesses, vibe coding is much more than another technology trend; it's a faster way to launch with lower costs and larger results.

For many small and medium-sized businesses, Vibe coding is much more than just another technology trend; it's also a faster way to launch, smaller margins, and larger results. Vibe coding is amazingly different from traditional app development. Rather than writing each line of code, you tell the computer what you want to do, like "I want a client portal where clients can schedule and make payments," and an AI will write... According to Google Cloud, this method allows anyone to create websites, applications, and other projects simply by describing their vision. According to IBM, this is a new approach to coding where users use natural language to communicate their intent, and an AI creates executable code from those instructions. Developers first used the term in early 2025, when they were creating full apps within platforms such as Replit, Shopify, and Wix, using conversational AI to perform tasks.

Tasks that would have taken weeks to complete via traditional development methods are now often taking less than a day or even hours to complete. Vibe coding is changing how teams build software. Instead of typing code, you describe what you need, and AI turns it into working features or full apps. It’s fast, flexible, and can help small and mid-sized businesses move projects forward without waiting on technical backlogs. But building through AI alone comes with trade-offs, like unclear logic, hidden errors, or security gaps if there’s no structure behind it. That’s where vibe coding best practices make the difference.

In this guide, you’ll learn 8 simple ways to make vibe coding actually work for your team. That includes: how to write clearer prompts, test what the AI builds, and know when it’s better to use an AI-powered no-code tool like Softr instead. Teams across industries vibe code to build prototypes, automate small tasks, or fill gaps in code when developer time is limited. It’s fast, but it’s also easy to overreach, especially when the AI’s code isn’t reviewed or documented properly. Vibe coding works best when you treat AI as a collaborator, not a magic box. The best results come from structure, not shortcuts.

Here’s how to get the most out of it. Curious about coding your own app or website, but don’t have the time for software bootcamp? Vibe coding might be for you – and as a small or medium-sized business (SMB) owner or startup founder, there are some real benefits to building your own product with vibe coding. The term “vibe coding” was coined in February 2025 by former Tesla director of AI Andrej Karpathy in an X post. It’s where a human describes project goals to a large language model (LLM), which then generates code without extensive human review or modification. The “vibe” refers to the intuitive, almost conversational way developers can describe what they want to build, and the LLM generates code that captures the essence or “vibe” of the request.

One of the most significant advantages of vibe coding is the drastic reduction in development time. Traditional software development involves lengthy planning, coding, testing, and debugging phases, ranging from a few months to even a year, depending on how complex your product is. Vibe coding streamlines this process by automating the coding step, allowing developers to focus on refining their ideas and testing the generated code. In today’s competitive landscape, being first to market or quickly iterating based on user feedback can be a big advantage. Vibe coding lets SMBs and startups prototype, test, and refine their products rapidly, staying ahead of the competition. With development time reduced, businesses can bring their products to market much faster.

Many SMBs are founded by entrepreneurs who are experts in their domain, but lack technical backgrounds. Vibe coding brings software development to everyone, allowing non-technical founders to describe their ideas in natural language and receive working code in return. This accessibility opens up new possibilities for innovation and entrepreneurship. Over the last 2.5 years at Mactriq Technologies, we’ve sat across the table—physically and virtually—with over 100+ business owners, founders, and operators. We’ve asked hard questions. We’ve heard the daily pain points.

We’ve seen where operations break down, and more importantly, where smart, simple software can unlock growth. Through that work, a pattern has emerged. It’s not a trend in frameworks or design aesthetics. It’s a new way of thinking about software: lightweight, focused, fast to build, and deeply aligned with how real businesses operate. Vibe Coding is a practical way to build tools that solve specific problems—using just the right mix of code, automation, and no-code. I’ve been learning about the newly coined tech called Vibe Coding, and I want to break it down because it can be useful for small business owners especially those who want to innovate without...

Vibe Coding is an approach to creating digital products that blends AI tools, low and no-code platforms and user-friendly design principles. Together, these elements can help you turn an idea into a functional app, website, or digital experience without needing deep technical knowledge. Instead of writing lines of code from scratch, Vibe Coding lets you describe what you want in natural language, outline the “vibe” or experience you’re trying to create, and let AI generate much of... For small business owners, here’s some ways you can use it :You can create apps or tools faster and with far fewer resources. This gives small businesses the kind of development power that used to be reserved for larger companies with tech teams and big budgets. In today’s newsletter, I included a resource that introduces a new AI-assisted tool that helps you build apps and digital products by describing your idea, your customer journey, and the “feel” you want.

If you’ve been wanting to bring a digital idea to life, this might be exactly what you need. In today’s fast-paced digital world, an ever-increasing number of companies are constantly searching for faster, easier, and smarter ways to build software. Traditional coding can be slow and resource-intensive; low-code and no-code platforms do not always have the flexibility that need of growing businesses. That is where vibe coding for business enters the scene – it is new, intuitive approach that combines creativity, automation, and user-friendly design. It is not just a trend; it is the digital revolution transforming how companies develop applications and systems. “Vibe” coding stands for the visual-first user-friendly coding style designed for speed and collaboration.

It allows you to create apps via a visual workflow, smart components, and more frequent AI-driven suggestions, with less need for you to write complex code line-by-line. Vibe coding does not focus on experience and flow, unlike traditional development and many low-code platforms. It allows business users, product managers, and developers to build apps collaboratively and with superior quality, quickly and creatively. Why does it matter now? Because the long development cycles are not affordable for businesses anymore. Whether you are building an MVP, automating some workflow, or simply testing a new idea, vibe coding brings you a flexible and powerful solution without the traditional bottlenecks.

Each month we evaluate and recognize award-winning designs in these industries. What if building software no longer required slow development cycles or heavy technical lift? Vibe coding replaces rigid workflows with AI-assisted creation, enabling businesses to prototype, iterate, and launch products at unprecedented speed by combining human insight with intelligent automation. Vibe coding is an AI-assisted approach to software development where humans define intent, logic, and desired outcomes, while AI generates, refines, and adapts the underlying code. Instead of manually writing every component, teams guide the build through prompts, feedback, and iteration, enabling faster prototyping, easier experimentation, and quicker delivery without deep technical overhead.

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