Fade or Fate: Vibe Coding as Transformative and Challenging Research
J. Leon Zhao
School of Management and Economics
Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen)
The emergence of "vibe coding" represents a pivotal moment in the history of application development and software engineering. However, doubts have emerged about whether vibe coding will fade as a passing trend or solidify its fate as a transformative area of enquiry. Coined by Andrej Karpathy, vibe coding describes a paradigm where developers use natural language to guide AI in code generation, prioritizing creative flow and high-level intent over syntactic precision. This approach has already demonstrated revolutionary potential, enabling rapid prototyping and democratizing application development for non-programmers. Universities have started offering new courses on vibe coding or AI-assisted coding.
Nevertheless, the emergence of vibe coding raises foundational challenges that merit rigorous research. Critically, vibe coding introduces significant risks related to code quality, security vulnerabilities, and maintainability, as AI-generated outputs often lack the robustness required for enterprise-level applications. Furthermore, philosophical questions have also emerged about skill erosion and the evolving role of developers, who may transition from writing code to curating AI-generated solutions. The IS community is confronted with two primary sets of challenges. First, there are transformative issues related to managing intra- and inter-organizational responsibilities concerning staff retraining and human-AI collaboration. Second, there are technical problems that must be resolved to harmonize agility with accountability. By examining vibe coding's socio-technical implications, IS researchers can help shape its trajectory of becoming a sustainable innovation with far-reaching impacts on the future of work and learning.
Biography
J. Leon Zhao is a Presidential Chair Professor of Information Systems, Director of Center on Blockchain and Intelligent Technology, Co-head of Information Systems and Operations Management (2022-2026), School of Management and Economics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He holds a Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley. He was a chair professor at the City University of Hong Kong and Eller Professor at the University of Arizona. He is a founding co-editor of Financial Innovation, a Springer OpenAccess journal and has co-edited over 20 special issues for academic journals including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Operations Management, and Decision Support Systems. Dr. Zhao is the founder of International Conference on Smart Finance, a co-founder of China Summer Workshop on Information Management, and has chaired over 30 conferences covering such fields as Information Systems, Service Sciences, FinTech, and Blockchain. He received an IBM Faculty Award in 2005, and the Chang Jiang Scholar Chair Professorship first at Tsinghua University in 2009 and then the Chang Jiang Scholar Chair Professorship again at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen in 2022. He was selected for the AIS Fellow Award by the Association of Information Systems in 2025.