Vibe coding at enterprise-scale: AI tools now tackle full development lifecycle

Vibe coding, where developers increasingly rely upon AI to generate and help with code, has rapidly evolved from a small niche concept into a mainstream approach to development.

As tools like GitHub Copilot have normalized AI-assisted coding the next battleground is moving from code generation to complete development workflows. In this increasingly crowded market, players such as Cursor, Lovable and Bolt have emerged. Windsurf (formerly codeium), has staked its claim with different approaches to AI-assisted software development.

Vibe coding is a term that represents a shift in culture where developers focus on the intent and outcome rather than manual implementation details. This trend has both enthusiastic supporters and skeptical critics.

The idea behind vibe coding is to use AI-powered tools for basic code completion and to generate entire applications using just a few prompts. Vibe coding is different from low-code/no code platforms because it goes beyond visual tools to create simple business applications. Selon some supporters, vibe coding can augment or even replace real software developers.

Windsurf’s Wave 6 release, which debuted on 2 April, addresses a gap in this competitive field that has been ignored by some tools: deployment. The journey from locally generated code into production deployment remains manual, despite the fact that code generation is becoming more sophisticated across platforms.

Anshul Ramachandran is the head of product and strategic at Windsurf. He told VentureBeat that they have “really removed a lot friction” from iterating and deploying apps. “The promise of AI, and all these agentic system is that the activation, or barrier to building is so much less.”

Windsurf Wave 6 feature break-down: What enterprises should know

When looking at the new features of Windsurf Wave 6 in particular, several enterprise capabilities address bottlenecks in workflow:

• The Deploys: A one-click package to share Windsurf built apps on the public Internet. Currently integrated with Netlify allowing users to publish websites or JavaScript web applications to a public domain.
• Improved performance for long conversations: Reduced degradation of quality in extended conversations by using checkpointing and summary techniques. Tab Improvements: Improved context awareness, including support for Jupyter Notebooks in the Windsurf Editor.
• Conversation Table of Contents (19459047) : New UX enhancement that allows easy access to previous messages and conversation reversion abilities.

Conversation management: A technical innovation that matters

Wave 6’s Conversation Table of Contents is also a feature worth mentioning. It addresses a technical issue that some competitors have overlooked, namely managing extended interactions with AI Assistants when errors or misunderstandings occur.

AI is not perfect. Ramachandran admits that it will make mistakes from time to time. You’d find yourself in a loop where you try to tell the AI to change its state. Instead of doing this, you should probably just reset the state of your conversations to the last point when things were going well and then try another prompt or direction.

This technical implementation creates an organized navigation system that will change how developers interact AI assistants.

1. Every significant interaction is automatically index within the conversation.
2. An easily navigable sidebar provides immediate access to previous conversation states.
3. One-click reversion restores previous conversation states.
4. This system preserves context without requiring an AI to correct itself repeatedly.

The Windsurf Wave 6 has received some positive feedback during its short existence.

Builders, do you still use Cursor? Or have you switched to Windsurf yet? I’m hearing that more and more developers are switching. https://t.co/euQCNU3OWu

— Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) April 2, 2025.

This is a very competitive space with a lot of activity. Replit Agent v2 was made generally available just last week. Replit Agent v2 is powered by Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet – arguably the most powerful LLM to code tasks. The new Replit Agent integrates:

• Improved Autonomy: Forms hypotheses and searches for relevant files, making changes only after being sufficiently informed.
• Improved Problem-Solving (19459047]: Less likely get stuck in loops, can step back and rethink approaches.
• Realtime app design preview: A first in the industry feature that shows live interfaces while the Agent is building.
• Improved UI Creation (19459047) : Creates high-quality interfaces using earlier design previews.
• Guidance Ideation: Offers suggestions for next steps during the development process.

The Cursor also offers a steady pace and is highly active. Recent additions include chat buttons, which allow developers to have multiple conversations simultaneously with the AI tool. Cursor users now have the option to use the new Google Gemini 2.50 Pro model. This was added on March 28.

Bolt released a new version on March 28 along with a mobile release in beta. Bolt AI v1.33 released at the end of February added full support for Claude 3.7, and prompt caching abilities. Cognition Labs has released Devin 2.0, a new version of their vibe coding software. Devin, like Windsurf Wave’s tabbed feature, allows multiple AI agents to be run simultaneously on different tasks. It now has interactive planning to help scope and plan tasks based on broad ideas. Devin 2.0 integrates a novel tool for searching codebases and navigating better

.

The evolution of developer role, not their replacement.

Vibe coding has sparked debates on whether traditional programming skills are still relevant.

Windsurf’s distinctly pragmatic approach should reassure enterprise executives who are concerned about the implications of this for their development teams. Ramachandran explains that “Vibe Coding” is a term used to describe the new class of developers being created.

Ramachandran explained that the term “vibe coders” is used to describe a new group of developers who can now write code. They may not have been able do so before. This is great. “This is the way software has evolved over time. We make it easier to create software so that more people can do it.” Vibe coding has a much higher level of power than low-code or no-code tools. Users can create all kinds of applications with almost no restrictions. Many of the modern vibe-coding tools can integrate with existing processes, and in some cases code bases.

Given how quickly development happens, it’s hard to predict which tool will win. Choosing a winner is also probably not the best choice. In the era of vibe coding, developers will have the same choice as enterprise developers.

Enterprises will be well advised by trying out different tools to see what works for their style and workflow. For technical leaders who are evaluating their approach to AI assisted development, there are several considerations that should inform strategic planning.

1. Evaluate workflows from start to finish, not only code generation: Assess how tools address the entire development lifecycle, not just coding. Consider enterprise-specific needs upfront: Tools designed for individual developers can struggle to scale up to enterprise requirements such as compliance, security, and team collaboration.
2. Balance governance with democratization: The promise of increased developer access must be balanced against mechanisms to ensure code security, maintainability, and quality. Plan for skill evolution and not replacement: Develop strategies to augment existing developer skills rather than replacing them. Prioritize context-management capabilities: As deployments grow, the ability of developers to manage complex codebases efficiently and recover from AI mistakes becomes increasingly important.

Vibe coding offers real opportunities to accelerate development and increase who can contribute. But in order to realize these benefits in enterprise contexts, tools that are designed with enterprise realities as a priority are needed.