Do I Vibe Code? No — I Use AI as My Digital Laborer

For a while now, "vibe coding" has become a buzzword.

These days a lot of people just write down an idea, let the AI spit out the code, and call that software development.

For me, it works a little differently.

I don't call myself a vibe coder.

Instead, I treat AI as my digital laborer — my hired hand.

It might sound funny, but honestly, that's exactly how it is.

AI is my assistant, not my developer

I often see someone type into ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor:

"Build me a complete SaaS platform."

…then they copy-paste whatever comes out and ship it.

My workflow isn't like that.

I decide the important things myself first:

• What the project architecture will be
• How the database will be structured
• How the API will be designed
• Which technologies to use
• What the performance considerations are
• What the security requirements are

Then I tell the AI:

"Follow this structure and write this part for me."

How I actually use AI

Say I already have the solution in my head.

I tell the AI things like:

• Generate this migration
• Write this DTO
• Create this API documentation
• Build this UI component
• Generate this repetitive code
• Write these test cases
• Draft this blog post

In other words, I give the instructions.

The AI does the labor.

AI makes me faster

Work that used to take me 3 hours now takes maybe 30 minutes.

I used to be lazy about writing documentation.

Now the AI drafts it.

Writing boilerplate used to eat up time.

Now the AI writes it in seconds.

So AI hasn't replaced my knowledge.

It has multiplied my productivity.

I'm still the developer

A lot of people think:

"If AI writes the code, why do we even need developers?"

Here's the thing — writing code is one of the easiest parts of software engineering.

The hard parts are:

• Understanding the requirement
• System design
• Scalability planning
• Security
• Business logic
• Trade-off analysis
• Performance optimization

AI still can't fully make those calls for you.

Knowing what to tell the AI — that's the real skill

These days the big skill isn't just coding.

The big skill is:

Knowing how to put the AI to work.

A good developer can make AI 10x more productive.

An inexperienced one can make mistakes 10x faster with the same AI.

My philosophy

I don't make AI my boss. I make AI my employee.

I give the direction. The AI executes. I review. I improve. I make the final call.

Final thoughts

I don't vibe code.

I use AI as a smart, fast, never-complaining digital laborer.

It's happy to work 24 hours a day.

But what it builds, why it builds it, how it builds it, and whether the work is actually right — that responsibility is still mine.

And it'll probably stay with us humans for a long time yet.

— Programmer Hasan 🚀