18
THE EMERGENCE OF THE
CITIZEN DEVELOPER
The term "vibe coding" was
coined by Andrej Karpathy, co-
founder of OpenAI, in early 2025
to describe "fully giving in to the
vibes" when working with AI
coding tools -- describing what
you want rather than how to build
it, and trusting the AI to handle
the implementation details. As
Tso explained in his Substack
article "The Era of 'Vibe Coding':
How to get started," this approach
represents a fundamental shift
from traditional programming.
Tso's journey illustrates the
trajectory. In his interview with
Artificial Lawyer, he described
the turning point. "The firm,
through its Microsoft subscription,
enabled no-code automation tools
like Copilot Studio and Power
Automate, so associates could build AI-enabled workflows. I got obsessed
and started building not just for myself but for colleagues. Pretty quickly,
partners and associates from different offices started sending automation
requests every other day. Some of the document-processing tools I built
ended up going viral internally and were ultimately adopted by the firm."
This is vibe coding in action: the practice of building software applications
through conversational interaction with AI assistants. Unlike low-code
platforms that constrain users to predefined templates, AI-powered
development tools generate actual code that can be customized and
integrated into existing systems. As a result, domain experts can translate
their deep understanding of legal workflows directly into functioning
software without the traditional bottlenecks of vendor evaluation cycles or
IT resource allocation.
