AI coding assistants aren’t just helping us code faster—they’re changing who gets to code. who If software is eating the world as Marc Andreessen famously said in 2011. In 2025, it seems vibe coding is gasoline poured on that fire. It’s massively increasing the rate at which software is eating the world. As Co-Founder and Co-CEO of WOMEN x AI, I’ve seen firsthand how vibe coding is empowering more people to build. Marc Andreessen WOMEN x AI We’ve seen a lot of changes in the 14 years since Andreessen first coined that term, but nothing as impactful at the dawn of the AI age and the LLMs (large language models) making conversational AI accessible to anyone with an internet connection. AI coding assistants like Lovable and bolt.new are transforming how software is built. Vibe coding democratizing access to who can create websites, apps, and companies. With plain language allowing all of us to code and create the coming wave of software will be a tsunami. And it’s impacting everyone from non-coders to engineers at the Magnificent 7. Lovable bolt.new Magnificent 7 What Is Vibe Coding? Vibe coding is an AI based approach allowing us to use plain language to code. It’s a prompt driven and intuition guided approach to software development. With vibe coding there is a preference for prioritizing rapid feedback over the typical architecture-first workflows. There are certainly drawbacks to vibe coding including code quality, poor maintainability, proliferation of bad patterns and of course concerns over security (we’ll dig into security later in this article). People will ship things they don’t fully understand which means they will open themselves up to risks and costs. The costs are both technical and monetary. Vibe Coding is Having a Hockey Stick Growth Moment Growth explosion is happening and you can see it in the growth of many of the vibe coding tools: Bolt.new’s user base grew from ~600 to 14,000 active creators within weeks and jumped from $0 to $4M ARR in 30 days; reaching $40M ARR by Mar 2025 (Business Insider).
As of this February Lovable a common vibe coding tool raised a $15M round after they hit key milestones like 30,000 customers and $17M in ARR or annual recurring revenue (Lovable Blog).
Cursor is estimated to generate 1 billion lines of code daily via natural-language prompts. They recently raised $900M, valuing the company at $9B, with ~$200M ARR reported by April 2025 (Financial Times). Bolt.new’s user base grew from ~600 to 14,000 active creators within weeks and jumped from $0 to $4M ARR in 30 days; reaching $40M ARR by Mar 2025 (Business Insider). $0 to $4M ARR in 30 days Business Insider As of this February Lovable a common vibe coding tool raised a $15M round after they hit key milestones like 30,000 customers and $17M in ARR or annual recurring revenue (Lovable Blog). Lovable a common vibe coding tool raised a $15M round Lovable Blog Cursor is estimated to generate 1 billion lines of code daily via natural-language prompts. They recently raised $900M, valuing the company at $9B, with ~$200M ARR reported by April 2025 (Financial Times). 1 billion lines of code daily Financial Times The popularity of vibe coding is a huge indicator of how pivotal it is. If you haven’t yet checked it out I highly recommend doing so. I’ll share my most recent experience with you and steps you can take to get started. My Experiment: Building a Game with Vibe Coding I picked Lovable because they were hosting a free weekend. For this project I selected Anthropic because I have had the least experience with it and heard it was particularly skilled with coding tasks. I imagined a game built like the old school Pokemon game on Gameboy where you walked around and encountered AI Battles. Here’s my initial prompt: Here’s my initial prompt: I want to make a game called Shatter the AI Glass Ceiling. Can you create a game that is a woman learning AI to break a glass ceiling?Have the woman walk like in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow (but in color). As she walks, she will encounter an AI battle: I want to make a game called Shatter the AI Glass Ceiling. Can you create a game that is a woman learning AI to break a glass ceiling?Have the woman walk like in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow (but in color). As she walks, she will encounter an AI battle: AI trivia (multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank)
AI facts (“I already knew that” or “I know that now” gameplay)
A modal to try prompts and create a visual badge. AI trivia (multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank) AI trivia (multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank) AI facts (“I already knew that” or “I know that now” gameplay) AI facts (“I already knew that” or “I know that now” gameplay) A modal to try prompts and create a visual badge. A modal to try prompts and create a visual badge. The initial output was rough but pretty good. I was impressed by how it captured the game play and was able to do the AI Battles I wanted. However, I quickly sorted out that it was using the trivia and facts again and again. I also noticed that the prompt modal didn’t work at all. It wasn’t hooked up to an AI model. So it just had the player write a prompt, but provided no output from it. It was a prompt to nowhere. Terrible user experience. For the next prompt I tried to fix these issues. It added more content for trivia and facts resolving the repetitive issue. It was unable to make the AI modal work after trying a few different times. So I ended up removing it entirely. Next, I worked through character selection allowing different tech jobs and skin tones. I used emojis for the game so I didn’t get stuck looking for or creating assets as this project was about testing Lovable. After that One of my favorite additions was a moment of celebration for the player—a small reward for every three trivia wins. Then I added a downloadable winners badge players could share on social media to help educate in community. We love to celebrate learning in public and this is a fun way to do that. It felt like a subtle, but meaningful way to turn gameplay into community storytelling. I did hit a few bumps—at one point, the “A” key wouldn’t work, which turned out to be a game navigation issue. I added logic so it wouldn’t scroll when the arrow keys were pressed but that logic made it so WASD keys didn’t work for typing. This became an issue when I was testing out the customizable winners badges. The a in ‘Jenny Kay Pollock’ didn’t work. I was able to fix it with one round of prompting. Even when you’re vibe coding you can have simple mistakes if you don’t frame your prompt correctly because it will do exactly what you tell it to. Lessons Learned: In vibe coding much like in life, you have to ask for what you want. Lessons Learned: In vibe coding much like in life, you have to ask for what you want. Through this I discovered that Lovable’s code creation tools are powerful, directly editing the generated code is a paid feature. Bolt, by contrast, allows more direct edits for free, which is useful to keep in mind depending on your needs. Check out the full game play here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHyGyIHXk2U&t=3s&embedable=true https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHyGyIHXk2U&t=3s&embedable=true You can play my vibe coded game, Shatter the AI Glass Ceiling because Lovable was able to host and deploy it for me.  For the full details on my vibe coding experiment, “Exploring Vibe Coding: AI Showdown with Lovable & Anthropic.” Shatter the AI Glass Ceiling Exploring Vibe Coding: AI Showdown with Lovable & Anthropic. Lovable’s popularity someone you know has likely tested it out. We’ve had community members share their experience: Helen’s Experience with Lovable  and  Pam’s experience with Lovable. Helen’s Experience with Lovable Pam’s experience with Lovable Want to join them? Become a member of WOMEN x AI and explore AI tools together. member of WOMEN x AI Many others are building games via vibe coding check out “How I Built a Retro Game in an Hour: My Experience With Gemini 2.5 Pro and Vibe Coding” and “Building a Game with AI: Fast, Flawed, and Full of Potential.” How I Built a Retro Game in an Hour: My Experience With Gemini 2.5 Pro and Vibe Coding Building a Game with AI: Fast, Flawed, and Full of Potential I Love Lovable’s Security Review I had not seen this in other vibe coding tools that I had tested. Lovable has the option to check the security of your code before you publish which I think is great. Here’s an excerpt from the Loveable’s Security Analysis Summary for the Shatter the AI Glass Ceiling: ✅ Positive Security Findings: No Critical Vulnerabilities Found: ✅ Positive Security Findings: No Critical Vulnerabilities Found: No hardcoded API keys, secrets, or credentials


No backend authentication or database interactions


No external API calls or data transmission


No user-generated content persistence


No file upload functionality No hardcoded API keys, secrets, or credentials No hardcoded API keys, secrets, or credentials No backend authentication or database interactions No backend authentication or database interactions No external API calls or data transmission No external API calls or data transmission No user-generated content persistence No user-generated content persistence No file upload functionality No file upload functionality The report does go on to outline what it does well with security and to make some suggestions of optional things I could improve and makes an over all rating for the software which is great. It’s important to note For non-coders I think there is more they could do to educate about why this is important. I could see a security modal popup during onboarding or if you hit publish without checking the security. I could also see some info on security being baked into onboarding or even in a ‘Welcome to Loveable’ email series. As a non-coder who has spent the last decade working in startups in Silicon Valley I have a deeper understanding than most when it comes to security. I could see security as a thing that is not even considered by non-coders so having vibe coding tools take a more active role is a really good idea. Plus it will set them up for long term success with their users. 7 Steps to Start Vibe Coding Today With is possibilities and concerns I do recommend that you get started with vibe coding. The goal isn’t perfect code. It’s creative momentum. Just get started. Iterate fast. Enjoy the ride. ✅ Your Vibe Coding Quickstart Checklist ✅ Your Vibe Coding Quickstart Checklist Choose Your Playground
Use an AI dev tool like Lovable, Bolt, Cursor, or any other vibe coding tool on the market.
Most give you free credits to get started but look for promotions like free weekends that will give you more room to test out the vibe coding tool.


Set the Vibe
Share a loose idea—no need to over-plan. I often ask myself What would be fun, weird, or surprisingly delightful?


Prompt the AI (Don’t Over-script)
Use simple language like: “Have the main player walk like in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow (but in color). As she walks, she will encounter an AI battle.” Let the AI take the first pass and be ready for surprise. It might not come out like you imagines and sometimes that is okay other times you just need to keep iterating.


Play, Don’t Polish
Test early. See what sparks joy or curiosity for you and your users. Don’t worry about bugs or edge cases yet, just explore.


Iterate with Feeling
Adjust based on how it feels, not just if it “works.” I recommend adding small touches like animations, reactions, or surprise moments.


Ship the Weird
Publish a version somewhere: GitHub, Glitch, or even a Notion doc.
Bonus: Share a clip or screenshot on social so we can all learn together. By sharing your work you never know who you will inspire.


Reflect & Remix
Ask: What did I learn? What else could I try in 30 minutes? Choose Your Playground
Use an AI dev tool like Lovable, Bolt, Cursor, or any other vibe coding tool on the market.
Most give you free credits to get started but look for promotions like free weekends that will give you more room to test out the vibe coding tool. Choose Your Playground Use an AI dev tool like Lovable, Bolt, Cursor, or any other vibe coding tool on the market. Most give you free credits to get started but look for promotions like free weekends that will give you more room to test out the vibe coding tool. Set the Vibe
Share a loose idea—no need to over-plan. I often ask myself What would be fun, weird, or surprisingly delightful? Set the Vibe Share a loose idea—no need to over-plan. I often ask myself What would be fun, weird, or surprisingly delightful? What would be fun, weird, or surprisingly delightful? Prompt the AI (Don’t Over-script)
Use simple language like: “Have the main player walk like in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow (but in color). As she walks, she will encounter an AI battle.” Let the AI take the first pass and be ready for surprise. It might not come out like you imagines and sometimes that is okay other times you just need to keep iterating. Prompt the AI (Don’t Over-script) Use simple language like: “Have the main player walk like in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow (but in color). As she walks, she will encounter an AI battle.” Let the AI take the first pass and be ready for surprise. It might not come out like you imagines and sometimes that is okay other times you just need to keep iterating. Play, Don’t Polish
Test early. See what sparks joy or curiosity for you and your users. Don’t worry about bugs or edge cases yet, just explore. Play, Don’t Polish Test early. See what sparks joy or curiosity for you and your users. Don’t worry about bugs or edge cases yet, just explore. Iterate with Feeling
Adjust based on how it feels, not just if it “works.” I recommend adding small touches like animations, reactions, or surprise moments. Iterate with Feeling Adjust based on how it feels, not just if it “works.” I recommend adding small touches like animations, reactions, or surprise moments. Ship the Weird
Publish a version somewhere: GitHub, Glitch, or even a Notion doc.
Bonus: Share a clip or screenshot on social so we can all learn together. By sharing your work you never know who you will inspire. Ship the Weird Publish a version somewhere: GitHub, Glitch, or even a Notion doc. Bonus: Share a clip or screenshot on social so we can all learn together. By sharing your work you never know who you will inspire. Reflect & Remix
Ask: What did I learn? What else could I try in 30 minutes? Reflect & Remix Ask: What did I learn? What else could I try in 30 minutes? What did I learn? What else could I try in 30 minutes? The Future: Where Will Vibe Coding Take Us It’s uncertain what the future holds, but the best part is collectively we get to pick. We get to decided how and when to work in collaboration with AI. Vibe coding and AI tools are changing what is hard about shipping features and building companies. With AI, Code Is No Longer the Hard Part explores how the hard part is really understanding the business, creating scalable architecture and managing security concerns. With AI, Code Is No Longer the Hard Part There is so much uncertainty in the AI era but one thing is for sure, AI is changing the way code is written and reducing the barrier to who can write it. This shift is part of a wider trend—forward-thinking leaders are already using AI as a strategic partner—not just a tactical tool. forward-thinking leaders are already using AI as a strategic partner Have you tried vibe coding? Drop a comment or link your AI-powered project—I’d love to see what you're building.

The is an opinion piece based on the author’s POV and does not necessarily reflect the views of HackerNoon.

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AI Coding Assistants in 2025: My Experience with Lovable, Bolt, and the Future of Programming

AI Coding Assistants in 2025: My Experience with Lovable, Bolt, and the Future of Programming

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