Replit boss: CEOs can vibe code their own prototypes and don't have to beg engineers for help anymore
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- Some CEOs are vibe coding and showing up to meetings with prototypes, said Replit's chief executive.
- Amjad Masad said vibe coding is giving CEOs agency.
- He also said product managers are "some of the best vibe coders."
Some CEOs are showing up to meetings with a working prototype and saying, "Look what I built," says Replit chief executive Amjad Masad.
The CEO of the AI coding startup said on an episode of the "Possible" podcast published Wednesday that vibe coding is giving executives a new kind of agency.
Masad said many leaders feel "disempowered because they've delegated a lot of things."
"They don't have as much input on the process," he added.
That dynamic is changing as CEOs start using vibe coding tools to prototype their ideas.
"We have CEOs that finally feel unleashed," Masad said. "They don't have to go beg someone to do it. They can, like, just vibe code and bring it into a meeting," he added.
A rough prototype, Masad said, allows leaders to ask a pointed question: Why should this take weeks to build if a version can be done in a few days?
Masad said much of coding is weighed down by "minutiae" and "accidental complexity" — technical details that matter to machines but add little value to the people shaping products or strategy.
"We want to get to a point where you don't have to code at all. You should be in a creative space," he said.
That's also why some of the most effective users of AI coding tools aren't engineers. Masad said product managers, who are trained to break problems into clear steps and communicate them precisely, are "some of the best vibe coders."
CEOs are vibe coding
Some tech CEOs have been vocal about using AI coding tools to test ideas faster and work more efficiently.
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said on an episode of the "Sourcery" podcast published in September that he uses AI coding tools like Cursor to prototype ideas on his own and save employees time.
"I was a business person, and then I just started exploring Cursor," said Siemiatkowski, who does not come from a technical background.
"Rather than disturbing my poor engineers and product people with what is half good ideas and half bad ideas, now I test it myself," he said. "I come say, 'Look, I've actually made this work, this is how it works, what do you think, could we do it this way?'"
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in June at Bloomberg Tech in San Francisco that he has been vibe coding.
"I've just been messing around — either with Cursor or I vibe coded with Replit — trying to build a custom webpage with all the sources of information I wanted in one place. I could type a location and get it all," Pichai said.
"It feels so delightful to be a coder in this moment," he added.