"Can You Get Some Work Done While I'm at Lunch?"... 'Vibe Coding' Transforms Workflow [Collapsed Coding Barrier] ①

At 10 a.m. on March 25, in a shared office space in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, four members of Opark Co., Ltd. gathered, exchanged greetings, and got to work on their laptops. The scene was quite different from that of a typical office packed with cubicles. After only a brief moment spent typing, the developers pushed their laptops aside and continued to converse with one another. They had already assigned tasks to Anthropic's generative AI model, Claude. Even when discussing ideas, they referenced concrete code created through vibe coding, rather than talking in abstract terms.

As lunchtime approached, employees pondered in front of their monitors. After some thought, they fed several sentences into Claude and went out for lunch. While they were away, the AI began writing code as instructed. No one sat at their computers manually entering code. Hyerin Kim, CEO of Opark (32), explained, "Our developers use vibe coding to instruct the AI to program. While developing solely with AI is discouraged at the company level, it's only natural for developers to act as the control tower."

Kim Hyerin, CEO of Opark, is holding a meeting with team members after giving work instructions to AI. CEO Kim stated that the AI demonstrated the work capacity of about four developers, enabling simultaneous work on other projects. Photo by Dongju Yoon

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Kim, who holds a degree in electrical engineering, founded the platform development startup Opark in February 2023. The platform Opark is building-Toont-M-provides all functions related to ordering building materials, including search, project management, client communication tools, and payment capabilities. Although she did not have a background as a program developer, she was able to enter the platform development business thanks to AI. Data collection to build the Toont-M platform began in August of last year, and the platform was completed in less than a year. With only four people handling work that would normally require dozens, costs such as labor were kept to a minimum.

"Witnessing the advancement of AI, I thought, 'Ah, we can build this while saving money.' Without vibe coding, I wouldn't have even attempted to develop Toont-M."

As vibe coding takes over the industrial field, work efficiency has dramatically improved. According to GitHub's report, "Engineering Leadership in the Age of AI," developers can complete tasks up to 55% faster using AI coding tools. Additionally, vibe coding has led to improvements in code quality and readability, resulting in better programming outputs. For this reason, it is no exaggeration to say that vibe coding now dominates the development scene. Market research firm Gartner predicted that, as of 2023, less than 10% of enterprise software development was performed through AI coding, but this figure is expected to grow to 75% by 2028.

Mr. Kim (39, male), a non-major in development, is showing a simple game made with Vibe Coding at a cafe in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 3rd of last month. Photo by Byungseon Gong

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Those without a development background have also embraced vibe coding. Mr. Kim (39, male), who is responsible for product planning at a major corporation, knows nothing about development. Yet, through vibe coding, he is creating games and YouTube video analysis platforms. Initially, he tried vibe coding for self-improvement. After repeating the process several times to achieve results he was satisfied with, he found it enjoyable and began experimenting with various fields through vibe coding. Kim now runs a YouTube channel called "Smart Daddy," which guides viewers on how to access vibe coding easily.

On the 3rd of last month, Kim demonstrated to this reporter how he makes a game using vibe coding. When he told Google's generative AI model, Gemini, "I want to make a game like Cookie Run by Devsisters. Please write a detailed project plan," Gemini instantly produced a concrete project plan. Then, when he asked, "Based on the plan, make a playable game right away," a game in which cookies jump over obstacles was immediately created. The process took just five minutes. Recently, Kim even created a game similar to Super Mario for his eight-year-old son.

"There are educational games for children on the market, but they're expensive. Now, I can make those kinds of games myself. Going forward, I want to use vibe coding to create things and share the process as content."

Hyerin Kim, CEO of Opark (second from the right), is holding a meeting with her team members after giving work instructions to the AI. Kim said that the AI demonstrated the capabilities equivalent to about four developers, enabling simultaneous progress on multiple projects. Photo by Dongju Yoon

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The most significant change brought by vibe coding is the disappearance of communication barriers in the workplace. Yeonsu Jung (33, female), who works at Opark as a video and design planning manager, does not know how to program, but she is preparing product plans in discussion with developers. When creating videos or images, prompts to input into vibe coding are crucial, so she regularly communicates with developers. Jung said, "At first, I didn't understand computer languages at all, but after trying vibe coding, I began to understand the general flow. My comprehension of what the developers program has also improved."

CEO Kim also emphasized that vibe coding has made work communication easier. There are no separate project plans at Opark; instead, they simply request vibe coding from AI and discuss the results. Feedback on work is not difficult, either. Vibe coding lightens the workload, making tasks less burdensome for both those who give instructions and those who receive them. Kim said that thanks to vibe coding, she has moved closer to her dream of entrepreneurship. "I've wanted to start a business since high school, and the advancement of AI made it possible," she said.

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