You don’t have to be a developer to benefit from vibe coding

What if the solution to an everyday problem at work was an app you could build yourself — without hiring a developer or spending months creating it?

More workers are doing just that. In a 2026 Zapier survey of over 800 U.S. employees who had built or deployed software using AI coding tools, 34% had no formal programming background.

One way they’re doing it is through vibe coding, which allows people to create software using natural-language prompts. You describe what you want an app to look like and do, and AI helps generate the code behind it. From automating repetitive tasks to building simple tools that make a process easier, vibe coding gives people in a range of roles a new way to solve problems at work.

Verizon’s AI Skills for America offers tips for using vibe coding to solve workplace problems, streamline everyday tasks and find new ways to work more efficiently. Here are some of the ways to get started.

Start with a problem you already understand

Don’t start by asking, “What can I build with AI?” Instead, look at your day and ask what could work better.

“Think about your day-to-day and find something that you think you could improve,” says Daniel Patterson, a principal managing sales engineer at Verizon who used vibe coding to create an interactive design tool to help with sales. “Doesn’t matter what it is.”

The problem doesn’t need to be technical. Patterson suggests looking for repetitive processes, information that’s difficult to access or tasks that eat up time. “You don’t have to be technical to get in and find a problem and then try to create a solution,” he says.

Tell AI what you don’t know

One of Patterson’s biggest early frustrations was learning how to communicate with AI effectively. His advice for beginners: Don’t pretend to know more than you do.

When he was learning, Patterson would tell AI his end goal, explain the resources he had and ask it to walk him through the process step by step.

“Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know what you’re doing,” he says. The more Patterson experimented, the better he became at giving AI the context and instructions it needed — and at understanding what to ask next.

His simple rule for beginners? “If you can copy, paste and conversate, you can win.”

Save what works — and use it again

As your skills improve, don’t start from scratch every time. Patterson saves prompts that have worked particularly well and reuses them across projects.

For example, after months of experimenting, he developed a “coding partner” prompt that establishes rules for how AI should work with him. He has also created reusable prompts that incorporate his company’s brand requirements.

“Don’t duplicate your efforts,” Patterson says. “Save your efforts and rinse and repeat.”

That approach can turn what you’ve learned on one project into a skill — and a shortcut — you can bring to the next one.

Use AI to scale what you’re already good at

Vibe coding hasn’t turned Patterson into a full-time developer. Instead, it has helped him expand what he can accomplish in the job he already has.

He has since created other tools, including a post-sale dashboard, and uses AI to automate work that once took significantly longer. An executive summary that might have required an hour of pulling numbers and writing, for example, can now take him minutes to produce and verify.

The time savings allow him to focus more on training and supporting colleagues — the part of his job he’s most passionate about. His AI work has also expanded his professional network and visibility within the company. Colleagues now seek him out when they have problems they think AI could help solve.

For Patterson, that’s where the career opportunity becomes clear. Learning AI skills isn’t simply about adding a certificate to your resume. It’s about finding ways to apply those skills to create value.

“Don’t just take the certificate and say, ‘Okay, I made my certificate,’” he says. “Find something and solve for it.”

This story was produced by Verizon’s AI Skills for America and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.