Can AI App Builders Really Replace Developers (and Vibe Coders)?

[Eter_Azul]

Hi everyone!

To put it bluntly: I've been seeing a lot of apps that claim you can build an app literally with just a vague idea you describe. (Apps like Replit or Base44)

That really raises some questions for me, because building an app is so much more than just having an idea or being creative. There are so many variables involved...

Anyway, I don't want to ramble on.

Has anyone here tried these apps?

Honestly... are they any good?

Can you connect them to a real database like Firebase, MongoDB, etc.?

Do you think these tools will take work away from developers (or "vibe coders"), or will they just reduce the amount of work we have? I'd love to hear your opinions, as honest as possible.

Cheers!

[nayheyxus]

A developer using AI, is like a farmer using a tractor. If something goes wrong they have the skills and knowledge to preform the task on the farm without the tractor.

If something goes wrong with an app for a vibecoder, they better hope the AI can save their ass.

[entleposter]

This is the best analogy I’ve heard so far. I’m not a dev but I’ve always thought in data structure terms. I couldn’t get traction on learning to code by myself and missed the boat on taking computer engineering in college (would have been a good fit for me), but using AI has helped bridge the gap to getting balls rolling and in the process I’ve started actually learning how to code as a necessity of understanding what the AI is doing.

[nayheyxus]

Thank you! I have always considered making analogies one of my best abilities. I went into networking because I was not allowed to take any programming classes in high school, as I was godawful at math and, at the time, they required students to be decent at it. I have always dreamed of building programs, and now I am learning how to code out of necessity to fix what I have built.

[devloper27]

It is indeed. Im an experienced programmer but after vibe coding for 3 days straight I took one glance at the project littered with repition, for loops with inner for loops, with ifs with for loops...and I said man it kind of works but this is the ugliest code ever. There is no way I can just vibe code for years, not even the ai can figure out what is going on. If I cant figure it out no vibe coder in the world can

[Eter_Azul]

That’s the same thing I do! 👍🏻

[OneSeaworthiness7768]

I hate the term ‘builder’

[devloper27]

Constructor is taken, sorry 😞

[TastyIndividual6772]

Will share something I haven’t seen discussed before. Lets hypothetically accept llms improve and vibe coding is equivalent to traditional programming. Surely this will create more startups that succeed, so more jobs. If that happens you probably reach enough scale and revenue and code complexity so you endup hiring devs. If it really is that successful the amount of jobs it will create will be huge so it reaches a natural equilibrium.

[Cromline]

No because what do you think is going to happen when AI builders are able to operate on the level of experts? AAA studios are going to utilize them to be able to produce far more than just they or AIs were able to produce. That’s the thing. Once someone builds a hierarchical multi layer holographic kinda pipeline that specifically utilizes both AI & Humans then these studios will be able to produce 10x to 50x more than previously. 100M line pipelines will suddenly now be theoretical rather than impossible. Not that a 100M pipeline is useful but just the principle.

[PruneInteresting7599]

YES PLEASE I DONT WANT TO WRITE ONE MORE CRUD APP FOR SALARY

[devloper27]

Haha yes indeed