Vibe coding might be the most popular buzzword in software engineering this year. People love it—and many products have been built around it. I jumped on the trend too and integrated AI into my workflow for a while. It definitely helped in many ways, but after a few months, I started to notice it was actually hurting my coding skills.
So today, regardless of the product’s quality, I want to talk about the side effects of AI-assisted coding for programmers.
The Light Side
Let’s start with the good. Using AI in my workflow initially felt like unlocking a productivity boost I didn’t know I needed. Tasks like writing boilerplate code, converting between formats, generating test cases, or even just looking up obscure syntax—all became faster and easier.
AI coding assistants helped reduce decision fatigue. I could describe what I wanted, get a decent implementation in seconds, and refine from there. This made prototyping feel lightweight and fun. It also pushed me to try unfamiliar libraries or APIs that I might’ve skipped before.
Another unexpected benefit: learning by example. Reading AI-generated code sometimes exposed me to new patterns, techniques, or shortcuts I hadn’t seen before. In some cases, it acted like a fast-track pair programmer—ready 24/7.
And the Dark Side
But over time, the cracks started to show.
I noticed I was relying too heavily on AI suggestions—sometimes without fully understanding them. I’d copy-paste a block of code, tweak a few variables, and move on. It worked, sure—but I wasn’t thinking through the logic like I used to.
My debugging instincts dulled. I’d hit a bug and feel less confident in tracing it, because I hadn’t deeply internalized the code in the first place. Worse, when the AI made subtle mistakes (which it often does), I wasn’t catching them as quickly.
Another issue: I felt my curiosity fading. Before, if I didn’t know how to implement something, I’d dive into the docs, explore examples, and truly learn. Now, it was tempting to just “vibe code” my way through it—and skip the learning process entirely.
Should we stop?
Not necessarily.
AI coding tools are powerful, and there’s no reason to ignore them—when used mindfully, they can seriously boost productivity and remove friction in daily work. But that doesn’t mean we should hand over the wheel entirely.
It’s easy to let AI take over the small stuff… and then the medium stuff… and before you know it, you’re just stitching together suggestions without really thinking. A messy codebase is one thing. But what’s more worrying is losing your feel for code—your intuition, your curiosity, your joy.
The real danger isn’t bad code. It’s forgetting why you loved to code in the first place.
So no, we shouldn’t stop using AI—but we should be intentional. Let it help you, but don’t let it replace you.