University of Kwazulu-Natal

Vibe Coding How Ai Is Shaping A New Paradigm In Software Development

Bonisiwe Shabane
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vibe coding how ai is shaping a new paradigm in software development

In the rapidly evolving landscape of software development, one month can be enough to create a trend that makes big waves. In fact, only two months ago, Andrej Karpathy, a former head of AI at Tesla and an ex-researcher at OpenAI, defined “vibe coding” in a social media post. This approach to software development uses large language models (LLMs) to prioritize the developer’s vision and user experience, moving away from conventional coding practices. The code no longer matters. Vibe coding is less about writing code in the conventional sense and more about making the right requests to generative AI (aka a Forrester coding TuringBot) to produce the desired outcome based on the... As cited in a YouTube video from Y Combinator (YC) titled “Vibe coding is the future,” a quarter of startups in YC’s current cohort have codebases that are almost entirely AI-generated (85% or more).

The essence of vibe coding lies in its departure from meticulously reviewing TuringBot LLMs’ suggested code line by line. Instead, developers quickly accept the AI-generated code. And if something doesn’t work or fails to compile, they simply ask the LLM to regenerate it or fix the errors by prompting them back into the system. This method has gained traction for several reasons, notably the significant improvements in integrated development environments and agent platforms such as Cursor and Windsurf; voice-to-text tools like Superwhisper; and LLMs such as Claude 3.7... These advancements have made AI-generated code more reliable, efficient, and, importantly, more intuitive to use, keeping developers’ hands off the keyboard and eyes on the bigger picture. The viral reaction to Karpathy’s concept of vibe coding, with close to 4 million instant views and countless developers identifying with the practice, underscores a broader shift in the software development paradigm.

This shift aligns with Forrester’s insights on TuringBots, which predicted a surge in productivity through AI by 2028. The reality is outpacing expectations, however, with significant impacts occurring much sooner. Vibe coding won’t fade away. The advent of vibe coding and the proliferation of TuringBots are creating two distinct types of developers. On one side, developers will transform into product engineers who, while perhaps adept at traditional coding, excel in utilizing generative AI (genAI) tools to produce “apparently working” software based on domain expertise and some... These developers focus on the outcome, continuously prompting AI to generate code and assessing its functionality with no understanding of the underlying technology and code.

The philosophy is to just keep accepting code until it does what you want. Not only that, but they don’t spend hours fixing a bug or finding the problem, since they can ask a well-trained coder TuringBot to do that for them or can just ask it to... This approach may challenge our classical view of computer science skills, suggesting a shift toward developers who are more orchestrators of software development process steps than coding craftsmen. The concern of how we’ll develop good developers over the years is gone, because you’ll trust AI to do a good job. And if you want good developers, genAI will help those on the development trajectory learn faster. “Vibe coding” is a new and loosely-defined term in software development that refers to the practice of prompting AI tools to generate code rather than writing code manually.

In software engineering , development is reshaping from strict, manual coding and becoming more flexible and AI-powered—and vibe coding is at the forefront of this change. “Vibe coding” is introduced by renowned Computer scientist Andrej Karpathy in February 2025 and emphasized the significance of AI tools in software development. This concept is in line with developments in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, especially large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude and OpenAI’s Codex to help developers stay in the zone of creativity and automate... Vibe coding is a fresh take in coding where users express their intention using plain speech and the AI transforms that thinking into executable code. The goal of vibe coding is to create an AI powered development environment where AI agents serve as coding assistants making suggestions in real time, automating tedious processes and even producing standard codebase structures.1 By prioritizing experimentation before refining structure and performance, vibe coding embraces a “code first, refine later” mindset.

This opens opportunities for developers to prioritize building first and optimizing later. Also, in an agile framework, vibe coding aligns with the principles of fast-prototyping, iterative development and cyclical feedback loops. This allows enterprises to focus on these principles while fostering innovation, instinctive problem-solving and flexible coding capabilities. However, AI simply generates code, but true creativity, goal alignment and out-of-the-box thinking remain uniquely human so human input and oversight is important and cannot be overridden. Posted on Mar 4, 2025 • Originally published at schibelli.dev Imagine a world where coding is no longer about meticulously typing out syntax but rather expressing intent.

A developer sits down, describes a feature in natural language, and AI translates it into clean, functional code. This isn’t science fiction—it’s happening now. Welcome to Vibe Coding, the next frontier in software development. Vibe Coding is the shift from traditional manual programming to intention-based AI-assisted development. Instead of developers writing every line of code, they describe what they want, and AI suggests, writes, and refines the implementation. Tools like GitHub Copilot, Amazon CodeWhisperer, and Claude Code are making this possible by leveraging large language models (LLMs) trained on vast codebases.

This shift is more than just an upgrade—it's a fundamental transformation in how software is created. Vibe Coding represents: Faster development cycles – AI dramatically accelerates coding tasks. In the fast-evolving landscape of software development, a paradigm shift is underway that's fundamentally changing how we build digital products. Welcome to the era of VIBE coding – Visual, Interactive, Bot-assisted Engineering – where developers and AI collaborate in real-time to create software through natural language conversation rather than manual typing of every line... VIBE coding represents a transformative approach to software development where programmers work side-by-side with AI assistants in a conversational, iterative way.

Rather than manually crafting every line of code, developers describe their goals or needed fixes in natural language, and large language models (LLMs) generate or modify the code accordingly. This concept gained significant traction in early 2025 when AI researcher Andrej Karpathy popularized the idea of "fully giving in to the vibes" of AI-generated code. In practice, VIBE coding shifts the human's role from syntax specialist to guide, tester, and refiner of AI-generated output. Large software companies and enterprises are actively integrating AI coding assistants into their development workflows: ANZ Bank (Australia) reported that approximately 7% of its code was AI-generated within a six-month period Software development is undergoing its most radical transformation since the advent of high-level programming languages.

In 2026, we're witnessing a fundamental shift from AI tools that merely suggest code to autonomous AI agents that can build entire features with minimal human intervention. Welcome to the era of "vibe coding" – where developers describe what they want in plain English and watch AI agents do the heavy lifting. The numbers tell a compelling story. According to a recent Sonar developer survey, 72% of developers now use AI tools daily, and these tools contribute to approximately 42% of all committed code. But what's changing isn't just the quantity – it's the nature of human-AI collaboration in software development. The first generation of AI coding tools – GitHub Copilot, early ChatGPT, and Amazon CodeWhisperer – functioned primarily as intelligent autocomplete systems.

They'd suggest the next line of code, complete a function, or help debug an error. Useful, certainly, but the human developer remained firmly in control. The new generation of AI coding agents operates on an entirely different level. These systems can: "What was incremental improvement has pushed past invisible thresholds," notes a recent Axios analysis, "making tools significantly more capable." In early 2025, the term vibe coding began to circulate widely across the technology community.

Coined by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy, it refers to a radically different way of building software. Instead of writing code line by line, the developer simply describes what they want to achieve in natural language, and an artificial intelligence system translates that description into executable code. This article explores what vibe coding is, how it works, its main advantages and risks, and how it fits within the broader movement of AI-driven software development. It also examines the social and ethical dimensions of this emerging paradigm and what the future might look like if the “vibe” becomes mainstream. Vibe coding is a form of AI-assisted programming in which a developer describes a problem or a desired feature using natural language. A large language model (LLM), such as GPT or Claude, then generates the corresponding source code that implements it.

Rather than acting as a mere autocomplete tool, the AI effectively becomes a creative collaborator capable of producing entire systems or applications from conceptual prompts. The term was first introduced by Andrej Karpathy, former AI director at Tesla and a leading figure in the OpenAI ecosystem. In one of his social media posts, he summarised the concept with the now-famous phrase: “fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists.” He associated vibe coding... By mid-2025, Merriam-Webster had even listed “vibe coding” as an emerging slang term within technology. It is important to distinguish vibe coding from traditional AI-assisted programming. Using an AI tool to generate snippets or suggest completions is not quite the same thing.

What defines vibe coding is a change in mindset. Instead of controlling every detail of the code, the developer focuses on intention, results, and iterative feedback. Simon Willison, a well-known software engineer, has noted that if you still read and understand every line the AI produces, you are not truly vibe coding — you are simply using a language model... Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2026. Read them in this 18th annual VMblog.com series exclusive. By Achint (AC) Agarwal, VP of Product, Pramata

The software development landscape is on the cusp of a fundamental shift. While developers have been using AI assistants over the past few years to write code faster, a new paradigm is emerging. A practice called vibe coding is changing not just how we code, but who builds the software that powers our processes. Vibe coding is a practice that emerged in 2025, leveraging large language models (LLMs) to generate functional code that developers can iterate on, test, and use for prototyping. Its ease of use has unlocked potential for both developers and non-technical visionaries alike by allowing users to simply describe their ideal end product and generate the code needed to get there. The enhanced accessibility that vibe coding brings has positioned it for rapid growth in 2026, and something that product departments across industries are sure to take full advantage of.

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