I'm a Vibe Coder. And Now I'm Wondering What Happens When AI Becomes Business-Critical Infrastructure

I'M A VIBE CODER.

No really, I am!! 😂

This is not something I ever set out to become. In fact, until fairly recently, I hadn't even heard the term.

It happened by accident.

I needed to build some tools for my business and, being pretty AI literate (even if I do say so myself...), I started using AI to help me build them. Before I really knew what was happening, I was writing prompts, refining outputs, testing things, fixing things and building tools that actually worked.

Apparently, that makes me a vibe coder.

Who knew?

I actually discovered the terminology last week while reading some articles about vibe coding. I think some of the content was actually advertising being served to me about compliance and meeting ISO and AS requirements when vibe coding - so my algorithms had apparently recognised it before I did. 😂

And then I went down a bit of a rabbit hole.

The rabbit hole

I started reading about AI dependency, data security, ways to use AI more efficiently and techniques to reduce token spend.

And somewhere along the way, another question presented itself.

Are businesses marching towards AI dependency, telling themselves it will drastically reduce wage costs, while perhaps not giving enough thought to what AI might cost once it becomes deeply embedded in their businesses?

Because comparing today's AI costs with today's wages is one thing.

But what happens 12, 24 or 36 months from now, when AI isn't simply a productivity tool, but business-critical infrastructure?

That question has been sitting in the back of my mind.

And then a few other things happened.

When AI moves beyond the business

I was recently at the Strata Impact Conference, where Adj/Prof Kim Lovegrove spoke about the capabilities of AI and what it could mean for drafting future legislation.

Kim was the architect of the Model Building Act and is renowned for his work in international law reform, including with the World Bank.

I don't mind saying I was completely blown away.

Not simply by what he was saying, but by the genuine excitement that radiated from his tone as he spoke about how deeply AI could ultimately become integrated into the development of important legislation.

And suddenly this wasn't just about my business.

It wasn't about whether AI could save me a few hours a week.

It wasn't even about whether I could build something myself instead of paying someone else to build it.

This was about how deeply AI could become integrated into the way society itself functions.

Worldwide.

That really landed with me.

Because we tend to talk about AI in terms of productivity. How much time it can save. How many people it can replace. How much more one person can now produce.

All of that is incredibly important.

But what happens when the technology becomes so deeply embedded that we stop thinking of it as a tool and start thinking of it as infrastructure?

Then there's offshore labour

At the same time, I'm currently having conversations about engaging offshore support for my businesses.

And that has got me thinking about another part of the equation.

If AI changes what one person can produce, while offshore services change what it costs to access human labour, then we're potentially looking at something much bigger than simply "AI will save businesses money."

We're watching the economics of professional services being rewritten in real time.

The relationship between people, technology, productivity and cost is changing.

And I'm not sure we have any idea yet where that ultimately takes us.

And then Michael Teys really set me off...

As if all of that wasn't enough, Michael Teys' blog this week really set me off. 😂

Michael was writing about how rapidly AI is becoming capable of handling work that has traditionally required significant human knowledge, experience and administrative effort within the strata industry.

And I completely agree with the productivity argument.

I LOVE AI. I use it constantly. I am genuinely amazed by what it can do.

AI can gather information, analyse it and present it back to me in a fraction of the time it would take me to do the same work manually.

That doesn't mean I blindly accept what it produces. Quite the opposite.

It gives me the ability to spend my time checking, challenging, interpreting and applying the information rather than spending hours gathering and formatting it.

That's an extraordinary productivity gain.

But it brought me back to the question I'd already been turning over.

What happens to the economics of AI once it becomes indispensable?

Today, we're in a period where AI providers are competing aggressively for market share. The technology is improving at an extraordinary pace, and the cost of accessing increasingly powerful models can look almost ridiculously cheap when compared with the cost of human labour.

But businesses are building around it.

They're embedding it into workflows.

They're connecting it to their data.

They're creating systems and processes that depend upon it.

They're changing the way their people work because of it.

And eventually, some businesses may find that AI isn't something they *use*.

It's something they simply cannot operate without. That's a very different economic proposition.

We're very good at rushing towards the next big thing

I think this is something we do as humans.

We get excited about the next big thing and rush towards it before we truly understand it.

We've done it before.

And I'm certainly not suggesting we should slow down when it comes to AI.

Quite the opposite.

I think the potential is extraordinary.

But I do think we need to be asking better questions alongside the excitement.

Not just:

What can AI do for my business?

But:

What happens when my business can no longer function without AI?

And perhaps:

What will AI actually cost when it becomes critical infrastructure rather than an emerging technology competing for adoption?

I don't know.

And neither, I suspect, does anyone else.

The strange thing is, I'm completely fascinated by it

One of the things I've found particularly interesting is watching people from my generation embrace this technology so enthusiastically.

I'm a Gen X'er.

I've lived through personal computers, the internet, mobile phones, smartphones and now AI.

Perhaps having experienced that succession of technological shifts gives us a slightly different perspective on what is happening.

Or perhaps we're just having way too much fun with it. 😂

Either way, I don't think we're anywhere near the end of this story.

In fact, I suspect we're still very much at the beginning.

I don't have the answer to all of this yet.

But I think it's a question business owners should be asking before they become completely dependent on the technology.

Because we're very good at asking what the new technology can do for us.

I'm not sure we're quite as good at asking what happens when we can no longer operate without it.

And I can't decide whether I'm more excited or scared about where we are headed.

All I know is that I'm all in on the unfolding story. 😂

Please, join me in my existential contemplations.

Clarity welcomed!