There was a time when being a software developer was one of the best jobs out there, specifically any time before 2022 it was booming, wanted and paid well.
I remember when I was working on a startup in Romania back in 2014 everyone wanted to be a developer because developers earned more money than doctors.
It was very clear that being a software developer was a guarantee for work, good pay and an unlimited lifetime of continuous learning and challenges. What a blessing!
Now this entire market is under pressure by AI, more specifically “Vibe Coding” and suddenly the demand for this skilled artisan is no more…
What is "Vibe Coding"?
Imagine this, instead of asking ChatGPT about your next itinerary to New York you ask it “Can you make me a new website, I want a blog, a contact page and it needs to look modern”.
Yes, this is all it takes to have a brand new website today. Of course most people don't ask ChatGPT to build a full website because you would still have to host this website and this is already too difficult for most people.
That's why there are now tools on the market that can create your entire website, project, app and host and maintain everything for just a few pennies.
And so “Vibe Coding” was born. You don't have to be a senior developer anymore to launch a digital project on the web, you just need a credit card and a keyboard to type a few English-structured sentences and poof the magic dragon goes, you are now a “developer”. Or are you?
In the good old days you had programming languages that took quite some time and effort to master like: C#, Java, Ruby, Python, PHP, JS, etc … well guess what:
The hottest programming language of 2024 was the English language
How do I start "Vibe Coding"?
Before you do, my advice to Vibe Coders today is based on experience from building software, training and suffering together with other software developers for the past 15 years: Software does not come out of the box just like that, yet. Today it still takes a trained software developer to ask the right questions to an AI and to host and secure it for the real world. You can make the prototype but please don't put our data and credit cards out there on the internet without consulting a real professional.
Here it goes:
Know a little bit of coding?
Then Cursor might be the way forward for you. Cursor is basically an IDE, much like Visual Studio Code. You create your project but on the right side of your editor you have an AI that watches over your work and you can ask it to add, edit or remove anything you want about your project in no time. It comes with a monthly cost, for more information check the site.
There have been some recent concerns about the pricing being vague and unsustainable which ended up in a public apology by Cursor (X reference).
Never code, never want to, just need a prototype:
You are in luck! You will never have to lose your hair thinking about the difficulties in coding and see the light of day once again.
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Loveable, one of the hottest, most popular AI vibe coding tools of this year. Besides the ease of use and results it produces it is also the fastest growing startup EVER. With a valuation of €1.8 billion in just 8 months you know they are on to something here… they also offer to publish your project with your own domain or on their domain depending on the payment plans. Oh, and to you Europeans out there, Loveable is Swedish!
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Prefer something non-European? There is also the US alternative Replit, which recently hyped on X about how it deleted vibe coder Jason Lemkins production database and there wasn't much anyone could do (X reference). However this mistake is easily forgotten by many because of the convenience it creates. Ready to deploy? Just a single click to put your project on the web.
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Another US competitor worth checking out: Bolt, while being the least popular of the three it still has made its way to the top. While this one is harder on the deploy aspect and might be categorized better in the "some developer knowledge required".
Obviously there is not a decent free alternative for "none developers" and every option comes with a subscription or pay per use plan. There are new alternatives rising like Claude Code but this is not for the untrained eye.
Got your prototype ready and want to have it checked by professionals before you click on "Publish"? Book a call with our team to sanity check your prototype.
The future of software development
To be honest, it's grim. I myself ran a software development company together with two friends back in Slovakia and Czech Republic back in 2021. At some point we scaled to over 25 developers working for several customers. In the meantime we had to close down this company due to the challenges we are facing today.
If the new mindset of most businesses today is that you can do the work of 4-5 developers by an untrained developer using an AI tool. All we can do now is wait it out. Grab some popcorn and watch the world burn.
It has already been clear that this approach is not working out for everyone. Although for many easy use cases like a simple landing page or blog this solution brought moments of joy to the world.
Jensen Huang (CEO of Nvidia) envisions that:
It is our job to create computing technology such that nobody has to program, and that the programming language is human. Everybody in the world is now a programmer.
As he clearly mentions he thinks it's their job to create this, that doesn't mean it's there today.
Learning how to code does wonders to the mind, it makes you think in solutions, it boosts creativity and it just gives you an amazing super power in the digital world.
Go more niche, focus on areas where AI tools are currently not yet showing great progress (Backend, API integrations, etc…). Don't hesitate to learn new things, combine software with hardware (Robotics) or help protect the vulnerable individuals from AI-driven fraud, misinformation and vibe coded security breaches… new opportunities are arising and you need to keep your eyes open and be ready to adapt.
Some final words to developers
My advice is to never stop doing what feels right, because eventually it's not about the tools or the software. It's about our curiosity, our imagination and our creative way to think and bring solutions to problems unknown to the world. This is what gives joy and meaning in everyday life.
And if the title didn't make you hum this song in your head, it's time to update your classics:
