Vibe Shift in Tech

Extracted Attributes

Vibe coding

Vibe coding is an artificial intelligence-assisted software development technique. The term was introduced by Andrej Karpathy in February 2025. The term was listed on the Merriam-Webster website the following month as a "slang & trending" term. It was named Collins Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2025. Vibe coding describes a chatbot-based approach to creating software where the developer describes a project or task to a large language model (LLM), which generates code based on the prompt. The developer does not review or edit the code, but solely uses tools and execution results to evaluate it and asks the LLM for improvements. Unlike traditional AI-assisted coding or pair programming, the human developer avoids examination of the code, accepts AI-suggested completions without human review, and focuses more on iterative experimentation than code correctness or structure. Advocates of vibe coding say that it allows even amateur programmers to produce software without the extensive training and skills required for software engineering. Critics point out a lack of accountability, maintainability, and the increased risk of introducing security vulnerabilities in the resulting software.

Web Search Results

• Tech Billboard Decoder: The Great Tech Vibe Shift

  This branding is juvenile — an unimaginative attempt to dominate the viewer. But maybe because of that, the ad feels like a perfect symbol for our times. The tech industry has undergone a profound vibe shift in recent years. These days, it feels more sinister: more mask-off, more openly evil. The early 2010s felt playful and optimistic, but the current moment is cynical and even nihilistic. Dinky social apps to ‘make the world a better place’ aren't cool anymore. You know what's cool? [...] The vibe shifted. Feel-good mission statements and not-quite-profitable social apps are out. Naked greed, in. The Palantir ad says the quiet part loud. The optimistic frothiness and utopian rhetoric of the long 2010s are over, having been superseded by the fetish of force and aggression. Now tech is all about making money through domination, whether in the form of military technology or through AI that menaces workers. ## The macroeconomic explanation [...] The vibe shift has not gone unnoticed within the industry. Tech insiders ascribe the exuberance of the 2010s to something called ZIRP — zero interest rate policy — referring to the low interest rates that prevailed across the western world in the wake of the Great Recession. In other words, money used to be cheap, and much of it flooded into the tech sector despite the riskiness of the investments. But in the early 2020s, the ZIRP era came to an end. Interest rates are higher now, and investors

• The Great Vibe Shift of 2025: How Digital Culture Is Remaking the ...

  The vibe shift is a meta phenomenon. It does not stem from a single cause, but from the collision of several forces: • Rapid digitization of information and social life; • Algorithmic influence on mood and attention; • AI’s dual role as creator and amplifier of content; • Economic insecurity despite positive macro narratives; • Political and emotional polarization; • Declining trust in institutions and media. [...] If culture is a conversation, then 2025 feels like a moment when the conversation changed tone. What we choose to say next — and how we say it — may determine the next chapter of this collective mood. And that, perhaps, is the true meaning of the vibe shift: a call to pay attention — not just to what’s happening, but to how it feels to be alive right now. Culture Technology Society Psychology AI ## Written by Stephen Despin 40 followers ·23 following [...] Studies show that selective exposure to like-minded content, combined with algorithmic amplification, creates polarized communities where shared identity matters more than facts. These dynamics extend beyond politics into how people relate to one another in daily life — eroding social cohesion. This emotional polarization is a key driver of the vibe shift. It transforms differences into threats, and disagreements into personal affronts. ⸻ ## AI: Amplifier, Mirror, or Threat?

• Why AI's 'vibe shift' looks like an inflection point

  Bill Briggs, chief technology officer at Deloitte, acknowledged a “vibe shift” around AI but said it’s not comparable to the late-1990s tech bust: “It’s certainly at an inflection point, but I don’t see this being a repeat of the dotcom bust,” Briggs told Goldman. He emphasized that AI is still driving transformation and that new business models are just beginning. [...] Goldman notes that Gartner forecasts global AI spending will reach nearly $1.5 trillion in 2025 and surpass $2 trillion in 2026, driven by integration into smartphones, PCs, and enterprise infrastructure. Big AI companies, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft, continue to benefit from the AI boom. [...] However, at the ground level, among customers and in financial markets, there may be an adjustment of expectations. Rowan Curran, principal analyst at Forrester Research, told Goldman that a necessary reset is underway: “Our thermometer was broken before. Now we’re finally getting the correct temperature.” He explained that enterprises are not pulling back from AI, but are recalibrating after a period of overhyped expectations.

• How AI changed the tech job market and what it means for ...

  This was the distinct moment when the "vibe" shifted for tech workers. When Elon Musk brought the sink into Twitter headquarters and soon after slashed ~80% of the workforce - and the app didn't crash. While I'm not a fan of the tactics Elon used here, it certainly heralded a new era where lean, highly performant teams became cool again. This moment happened to coincide with the escalating AI productivity boom, and it's only gotten harder for job seekers. Because back then, the status symbol [...] a win. AI is helpful, sure, but acting like it replaces 4 to 5 engineers is quite the stretch. It can cut grunt work, but it cannot replace judgment, experience, or the ability to coordinate real product decisions. Companies love telling that story because it justifies smaller payrolls, not because it reflects the quality of what actually gets shipped. You're completely right, the vibe shifted, but not for the better. It shifted toward cost cutting, weaker products, and treating workers as the [...] Hunter Muse I wonder if tech roles might become less attractive in the future since AI is replacing most of the technical skills, we might end up seeing a shift where art and creative skills become more valuable compared to technical skills. Like Reply 2 Reactions 3 Reactions David Cummuta 2w Report this comment

• The vibe shift is here and it's not what we expected

  "What we are witnessing and experiencing is a death rattle, the dam that needs to break," Fitzpatrick asks. "The real vibe shift will come next, creating more economic equality, where we can use technology to see the greed and we can check it. Where we can see injustice because we have millions of screens showing what's happening." Zoom out, he says, and these are the best of times. [...] From the rise of misinformation and AI to escalating political tensions, vast economic disparity, and the erosion of social bonds, the vibe shift is now understood as a deep, unsettling change in our collective reality. [...] Both Kyles I spoke with were optimistic that there would be a backlash to this current vibe. That when we wake up to its fundamental anti-humanness we would be disgusted and enraged at the tech companies and the forces that brought us here. That we would throw our phones into the sea.