The New Pragmatism: AI's Productivity Boom aka Vibe Coding Is Creating a Generation of Builders

published on 09 February 2026

The vibe has shifted. After years of AI hype and skepticism, we're witnessing something different: a measurable, explosive productivity boom that's transforming how software gets built—and who gets to build it.

The Numbers Don't Lie: Coding Productivity Has Exploded

The past 18 months have delivered what futurists promised but couldn't prove: AI tools are fundamentally accelerating human productivity. According to data from the Domain Name Industry Brief, SensorTower, and GitHub, year-over-year growth across key coding indicators tells a stunning story:

  • New websites: +40% growth through 2026
  • New iOS apps: Explosive 50%+ spike in 2025-2026
  • GitHub code commits (US): +40% surge
  • GitHub code commits (UK): +30% increase

These aren't marginal improvements. This is a step-function change in how much code humanity is producing.

From Hype to Reality: The Claude Code Moment

Perhaps the most striking indicator of this shift: 4% of all public GitHub commits are currently being authored by Claude Code—Anthropic's AI coding assistant that works directly in developers' terminals. At current trajectory, that number is projected to reach 20%+ of all daily commits by the end of 2026.

Read that again: Within two years, one in five lines of code committed to the world's largest code repository could be AI-generated.

As one observer put it: "While you blinked, AI consumed all of software development."

The "Vibe Coding" Revolution

Nikita Bier coined the perfect term for what's happening: "vibe coding." Everyone is suddenly building—creating new apps, launching websites, cloning existing services. The barrier to entry has collapsed.

You don't need a computer science degree anymore. You don't need to spend months learning frameworks. You need an idea, an AI coding assistant, and the willingness to iterate.

Elon Musk's prediction captures the magnitude: "The next 36 months will create more millionaires than the last 36 years."

Whether you believe the exact numbers or not, the directional truth is clear: we're entering an era where individual builders can create valuable software products at unprecedented speed and scale.

The SaaS Reckoning

While productivity soars, traditional software companies face an existential crisis. The divergence is stark:

  • Nasdaq 100: +20% in 2025
  • Morgan Stanley SaaS Index: -25% over the same period

SaaS stocks have imploded by ~45 percentage points relative to the broader tech market in just 18 months. Why? Because the old playbook—building feature-rich software that requires human operators—is becoming obsolete.

Every piece of enterprise software must become a platform play. We're moving to a world where AI agents will do vastly more work with tools and data than humans ever did. Your business model, feature set, and access points have to prepare for this reality.

The companies that survive will be those that enable AI agents to work with their platforms, not those that try to replace agents with more features.

The Business Banking Opportunity

Here's the pragmatic implication that often gets overlooked: All these new builders need business banking accounts.

Every vibe-coded app, every solo-founder SaaS tool, every AI-assisted consultancy needs basic financial infrastructure:

  • Payment processing
  • Comptes multidevises
  • Accounting integration
  • Invoicing and expense management
  • Corporate cards

This is where modern business neobanks step in, offering everything a lean digital business needs without the bureaucracy of traditional banks.

3 Business Banking Solutions for the AI Builder Generation

For US-based founders: Mercury
Mercury has become the default choice for American startups and solo founders. No fees, instant account opening, powerful APIs for automation, and integrations with modern tools like Stripe, QuickBooks, and expense management platforms. If you're building in the US, Mercury is the pragmatic choice.

For French and European founders: Qonto
Qonto has emerged as France's leading business neobank, offering everything from basic business accounts to multi-entity management for growing companies. Their interface is elegant, their customer service responsive, and they understand European regulatory requirements. For French entrepreneurs, Qonto is often the first account they open.

For global builders: Revolut Business
Revolut Business excels at international operations—multi-currency accounts, global payments, competitive FX rates, and corporate cards that work everywhere. If your AI-generated business serves customers across multiple countries or you're managing international contractors, Revolut's infrastructure scales with you.

Honorable mention: Blank is gaining traction in France with a founder-first approach, though it's still building out features compared to Qonto.

All of these options integrate with modern accounting tools, offer APIs for automation, and understand that today's businesses are built differently than they were even five years ago.

Compare business banking solutions for digital entrepreneurs at neobanque.ch/business

The New Pragmatism

What makes this moment different from previous AI hype cycles?

Results.

We're past the "imagine what's possible" phase. Developers are shipping products faster. Solo founders are building sophisticated applications. The productivity gains are measurable, repeatable, and accelerating.

This is the new pragmatism: AI isn't going to replace all jobs tomorrow, but it's fundamentally changing who can build, how fast they can build, and what's economically viable to create.

The next 36 months won't just create millionaires—they'll create a generation of pragmatic builders who used AI to turn ideas into businesses while everyone else was still debating whether it was real.

The question isn't whether AI productivity gains are real anymore.

The question is: what are you building?

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