Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, recently revealed that he’s been exploring “vibe coding” by leveraging AI tools to generate code via prompts. Speaking at Bloomberg Tech in San Francisco, Pichai shared that he’s been testing out AI-powered coding platforms like Cursor and Replit—both designed to turn natural language instructions into functional code—to create a new webpage.
“I’ve just been messing around — either with Cursor or I vibe coded with Replit — trying to build a custom webpage with all the sources of information I wanted in one place,” Pichai said.
The emergence of vibe coding is reshaping perceptions of software development. It has raised concerns among some engineers about AI potentially replacing their roles and ignited discussions among investors about whether deep technical expertise is still essential for startup founders.
What is vibe coding:
“Vibe coding” is a modern, rapidly emerging concept in software development, popularized by Andrej Karpathy—co-founder of OpenAI and former head of AI at Tesla—in early 2025. It represents a shift in how code is written, placing natural language and AI tools at the center of the development process.
Why IT professionals talking about vibe coding:
Emphasis on Intent Over Syntax:
Instead of manually crafting every line of code, developers—or even non-programmers—focus on expressing the desired outcome or “vibe” of the application using plain language. You describe what the program should do, and the AI figures out the implementation details.
AI Takes the Wheel:
Karpathy summarized the idea as “forget that the code even exists.” You interact with an AI model by describing functionality, reviewing the output, and giving feedback. The AI iteratively refines the code until it aligns with your intent, often through a conversational exchange.
Faster, Easier, and More Inclusive Development:
Vibe coding lowers the entry barrier for software creation. Non-coders can build working apps, and experienced developers can speed up workflows, quickly prototype ideas, and offload repetitive coding tasks. It’s designed to maximize productivity by letting AI handle the heavy lifting.
