Published in partnership with Novigi

Technology delivery in financial services is changing fast. In less than two years, generative AI has gone from one big experiment to enterprise adoption. It can now be seen helping teams produce working software much faster than before. This shift is reshaping how ideas are imagined, tested, and delivered.

Yet delivery still struggles to keep pace. In superannuation, new ideas can take months to move from requirements to deployment. By the time they land, regulations or member expectations may already have shifted. The result is familiar: technically sound solutions that no longer fit the problem they were meant to solve.

Vibe coding is one of many AI‑related neologisms now making their way into industry conversations. The concept behind this buzzy term offers a practical response to the challenge of delivering at speed. It can enable funds to co‑create solutions that evolve with change. Most importantly, it helps organisations move from insight to impact faster by engaging those closest to the problem and aligning delivery with real‑world priorities.

Vibe coding is the use of generative AI to translate intent into working code quickly, prioritising the essence of what’s being built (“the vibe”) over hand‑crafting every line from scratch.

It typically looks like this in practice:

• Prompt‑to‑code acceleration: Developers and domain experts describe desired behaviour in natural language; AI scaffolds code, tests, or UI elements that can be refined rapidly.
• Co‑creation in safe sandboxes: Prototypes are built in controlled environments where data, access, and deployment are governed.
• Progress through tangible artefacts: Teams converge on outcomes by reacting to something that runs, rather than debating documents.

Vibe coding is not just another low-code approach, nor does it substitute for solid engineering practices. Instead, it helps clarify intentions early on, allowing organisations to validate their ideas before making significant investments.

Why it matters for super funds

Vibe coding is already delivering results across industries, well beyond IT. In superannuation, it has the potential to make a large impact. We see some clear use cases around:

Member onboarding and engagement
Teams can test and refine member-facing tools — calculators, personalised journeys, or simpler navigation — with focus groups or pilots. The goal is to improve engagement and validate effectiveness before full rollout.

Operational efficiency
Vibe coding helps leaders and staff visualise workflows, backlogs, and demand drivers. Domain experts can co-create dashboards that identify bottlenecks and feedback loops. These prototypes demonstrate feasibility and give executives a tangible basis to sponsor the right initiatives.

Regulatory readiness
Regulations continue to evolve, from CPS 230 to APRA reporting and ASIC disclosure. Much of the interpretive expertise sits with experienced staff. Vibe coding would allow them to work with technology teams to prototype dashboards and reporting tools that surface risks early. These mock-ups clarify requirements, highlight compliance gaps, and give boards greater confidence that obligations are being translated into practice.

Technology and transformation
Transformation programs often face scope creep and late surprises. Vibe coding can help by turning evolving conversations into tangible artefacts — mock-ups of workflows, dashboards, or decision trees — that make risks visible and alignment easier. By testing ideas early, it reduces ambiguity and wasted effort.

Across all these above domains the common thread is that vibe coding connects AI’s potential with day‑to‑day delivery by involving those closest to the work. But in highly regulated environments, experimentation and speed like this can create risk. The success of vibe coding depends on controlled sandboxes, clear guardrails, and strong governance that keep innovation safe.

Working safely in regulated environments

The speed and flexibility that make vibe coding attractive can also introduce risk if not managed well. In regulated sectors like superannuation, prototypes are not production systems—and treating them as such can create compliance gaps, security issues, and operational fragmentation.

Key inhibitors include:

• Misaligned expectations: Prototypes mistaken for finished products
• Governance gaps: Security or compliance risks if outputs escape sandboxes
• Shadow IT: Fragmentation from unmanaged experiments
• Cost versus value trade-offs: Iteration without direction
• Cultural resistance: Discomfort with incomplete artefacts or rapid cycles

These are not new challenges. As our collective technology capability has evolved over the decades, we have developed commonplace standards, approaches and techniques to ensure that our “human” operations provide the outputs we expect whilst managing the risks associated with rapid innovation and development.

It’s easy to forget that what we take for granted as today’s standard software development practices are the result of years of lessons learned when development goes wrong. The challenge for us is understanding how best to apply the same governance frameworks and controls to AI-driven development.

From insight to impact

The AI surge has shown what can be built. Vibe coding ensures those possibilities can be explored and validated quickly, before the environment shifts again. However, like everything new and shiny in technology, we must remember that AI is but a tool in our toolkit.

While AI is developing and learning fast, we cannot discount the years of practical experience, knowledge and context that a solid development team brings to the table. Like any tool at our disposal, humans provide the checks and balances needed to deliver the outcomes we intend within the bounds of good development practices.

AI is enabling organisations to iterate faster, but true innovation and impactful development is a marriage between the tool and the craftsman wielding it. As leaders, we should consider the best approaches to enabling our teams to succeed in this evolving space.

There will be lessons we learn as “vibe coding” embeds itself into our standard development practices and becomes the norm.

Chaitanya Raju is a senior consultant at Novigi.