Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2026. Read them in this 18th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Achint (AC) Agarwal, VP of Product, Pramata
The software development landscape is on the cusp of a fundamental shift. While developers have been using AI assistants over the past few years to write code faster, a new paradigm is emerging. A practice called vibe coding is changing not just how we code, but who builds the software that powers our processes.
Vibe coding is a practice that emerged in 2025, leveraging large language models (LLMs) to generate functional code that developers can iterate on, test, and use for prototyping. Its ease of use has unlocked potential for both developers and non-technical visionaries alike by allowing users to simply describe their ideal end product and generate the code needed to get there.
The enhanced accessibility that vibe coding brings has positioned it for rapid growth in 2026, and something that product departments across industries are sure to take full advantage of.
Where Vibe Coding Fits into Processes
You may be thinking, “Can vibe coding work within structured enterprise development environments, or does that defeat the purpose?” Vibe coding isn’t (yet) meant to replace your structured development processes-it’s a tool for the discovery and validation phases before you commit to formal development. With that in mind, the following are my 5 vibe coding predictions for 2026.
1. Rapid Adoption & Immediate Results
Many organizations have yet to actually adopt any form of AI-coding, let alone vibe coding. With AI-forward companies seeing accelerated momentum in 2025, more companies will take notice of their peers and jump on this trend. For early adopters taking advantage of vibe coding in 2026, immediate efficiency gains are imminent.
2. Adoption Beyond Product Departments
If your role is product-focused like mine, you already know the benefits of using traditional AI-assisted coding. Writing functions, debugging errors, you name it-AI has been powering these processes for the last couple of years. But vibe coding represents something much more fundamental: the ability to articulate exactly what you want and receive a working prototype in return.
For AI-forward companies, the pool of folks who will be adopting vibe coding will extend beyond product managers. In 2026, I believe that domain experts in functional departments will actually get into the driver’s seat to develop internal tools to boost departmental productivity.
Much like product managers, vibe coding empowers functional leaders with the ability to see their ideas come to life. But, the key difference is that domain experts in their fields can unleash this technology to improve their lives, their departments, and remove unnecessary layers of complexity within internal processes.
3. Visions Brought to Life More Easily
Vibe coding works so well because it gives the person closest to the idea the power to shape and see their idea come to life, without the risk of it getting lost in translation.
From concept to prototype, the process traditionally looked something like this:
The person closest to the idea (typically, a product manager) would explain the software concept to a developer or coder who would then try to design the feature to spec. Oftentimes, the initial version of the software looked nothing like what was originally described, and would be followed with weeks of refining and iterating on the concept, with multiple back-and-forth conversations between the product manager and software developer, trying to get the end product closer to the original vision. With vibe coding, that cycle can not only be compressed, but the expert is actually empowered to build the software themselves.
In 2026, this streamlined approach to production will provide great quality control for early-stage prototyping work.
4. Less Risk, More Precision
Vibe coding will challenge traditional software development lifecycles in 2026. I believe we will see more product teams utilizing their AI toolstack during discovery and validation phases, before formal development begins. Teams will generate working prototypes in days, test them with actual customers, and implement changes in record time thanks to vibe coding.
This front-loads risk management, providing proof of concept with real user feedback before the project reaches the formal development stage. In turn, vibe coding also de-risks development teams having to go back and rebuild features, saving time by eliminating double-work. With vibe coding, engineering and development teams have a validated prototype at the start of the project that they can rebuild with the proper enterprise architecture, security controls, and scalability requirements.
The vibe-coded version becomes a specification more precise than any requirements document could ever be, as it’s a working reference implementation that customers have already endorsed.
5. Reuse of Code, Where Applicable
The question of how much code produced via vibe coding makes it into production will be one of the key debates in 2026. The answer will vary by context, but clear patterns are already emerging.
When it comes to UI/UX, you can generally reuse quite a bit. The vibe-coded prototype has already validated the user experience-the layouts, flows, and interactions that customers responded to positively. Engineers can then take those components and refactor to fit organizational standards and style guides. Or, even use them as precise specifications for what to build. It’s like having a working reference implementation that’s already been user-tested.
Building Simple = Opportunities for Reuse
Reuse gets more nuanced when it comes to business logic and backend integration. For standalone features or tools that don’t need to integrate deeply with existing systems, engineers may opt to keep a substantial amount of the vibe-coded logic, with simple recoding to fit quality standards, add proper error handling, and implement security controls.
Building Complex = Using Vibe Coding as Inspiration
When you’re building something more robust that needs to integrate with existing services, databases, and architectural patterns, the vibe-coded version should be treated as inspiration. The prototype has proven what needs to be built and how it should perform, but it is the engineer’s job to write the final code in a way that fits existing codebases, follows architectural patterns, and leverages shared services and data models.
What 2026 Will Reveal About Vibe Coding
Organizations who get ahead of the vibe coding implementation curve will see faster time to market, better quality outputs, and more streamlined creations. Remember: Vibe coding is not about eliminating developers, it’s about eliminating waste from the development process.
With these gains in mind, 2026 will be the year that vibe coding transitions from novelty to standard practice for product discovery. The tools will improve, the patterns will solidify, and the skeptics will have their proof points. But the fundamental shift-from describing what you want to having it-will have lasting implications on the way we create products for years to come.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Achint Agarwal is Vice President of Product for Pramata, an Enterprise Grade Contract AI Platform. Agarwal is responsible for defining Pramata’s strategic product roadmap and driving innovation in Contract Management solutions. With nearly two decades of technology experience, including 16 years in legal technology, AC has driven digital transformation across enterprise organizations to streamline operations, reduce risk, and unlock significant revenue potential.
