Ask HN: Have you observed this trend of building "internal vibe-coding apps"?

I hear that all around me. Two examples:

- In a powerline construction company, some people (non-devs) vibe-coding internal apps to help with the planification of the construction, like connecting to the land register automatically and mailing all the people on the path of the new powerline. - An industrial company where they vibe coded an internal social network.

In both cases the apps are a bit rough on the edges, but they work and people are happy. I really think we will see more and more arbitrage between buying and vibe-building.

I was brought in the other day to discuss building an app to automate audits, and the person pointed at an internal web app that was made by a person in ERP team, and called that amazing. I can see Claude signatures every where, but I just let them go with it.

It's getting real now that everyone can prompt to build things now and call themselves coders. I was even offered help from them.

I have heard of non-engineering folks vibe-coding dashboards/apps and deploying them in god knows what way - all with the support of management. Code is now cheap. Those with good engineering teams will be able to rein it in. Everyone else will be left with heaps of broken or (worse) wrong code. Business or life critical decisions will be made on that. When it’s wrong, do we blame the vibe coder?

Just as every office has a computer, every corporate document uses Word, and every data grouping/analysis goes to Excel, AI is the tool of the moment; everyone will use it, and those who don't are stuck with the typewriter.

Regarding internal apps, the big problem isn't creating/building them, it's maintaining them, scaling them, and providing support. In the coming times, we'll see many companies suffering from orphaned, vibe-coded apps that no longer work.

I think it’s inevitable as AI becomes more powerful and more readily available. It’s a new way for people to think about problems and solutions at work.

Is it always good? No. Is it happening? Yes.

I’ve been working on an open-source platform called Pando (https://github.com/trypando/pando) to help provide a safer outlet for these internal apps.

I don’t think it’s realistic to suppress these apps, so there should be something to point users/employees to.

Are you building one? What are you building? Why?

Seems to be a paid subscriber article?

The problem is design is a skill for humans by humans. It gets neglected beyond AI's initial rounded corners, stock buttons and forms.

If AI nails design, it's by accident, not because it thought through design strategies relative to business needs, target audience, or any number of other factors.

Unlike its excellent coding skills, AI can't judge whether your eagerly generated features should be scaled back or omitted because of where this "app thing" is placed relative to other "app things".

AI: "You're thinking the right way. Leaderboard now added. Would you like staff to receive regular emails with updates on their leaderboard position?"

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