Once the app gets a bit more complex, it won't be that much different to any more traditionally vibe coded application (code, git/pr, test, deploy, ops). It only removes the barrier to get started, but doesn't solve any of the real problems. Problems like AI slop, code rot, bad architecture, security issues, data loss/breach because of bad code, and so on.
An average customer of mine hasn't got the slightest interest in dealing with this stuff.
Sure, they show me llm generated prototypes these days of how they envision a certain feature, ui and ux wise.
But that's great, because even with AI I save time iterating with them.
But for the actual programming and maintenance they still come to me.
Why? Because THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED IN IT!
I'm not saying an agent couldn't make sure it's good and it works, but there are a lot of aspects to that: It's compliant, it's secure, the right data is stored, the right compromises are made for sometimes mutually exclusive business priorities, UX is decent, it's responsive, it scales, hosting is economical, it has the right tests, monitoring for the right risks, and so on and so forth. A lot of devil in the details, and the context required to know what to focus on is rather vast.
If anything, I see this work getting harder, since the discipline around minimal scope is getting weaker, leading to a complexity explosion affecting all of these aspects.
It usually comes down to how successful a business is. Just starting out with little to no funding? They'll want to dabble themselves. But if there's money, it can and will be exchanged for time. Easier prototypes and MVPs means faster business model validation, which means higher willingness to invest. I do see this happening.
Will we always need to know programming languages for doing this? Maybe not, but it doesn't matter. If you make a machine do stuff for a living, you're a programmer. How exactly you do it doesn't affect that in my mind.
That and you need to be able to even ask the right questions.
These are people that have NO IDEA about how computers or their software works.
Sure they can let it be explained by an LLM but unless they thoroughly study these things, they simply can't know which questions to ask.