Vibe coding in the Enterprise - part 1

Can we bring security, compliance and governance to "the vibes"? A multipart series on adopting AI coding in the Enterprise.

Author

Ricardo Fiel
July 14, 2025

When developers talk about vibe coding, they’re usually describing something fast, intuitive, and almost magical—flow-state programming where ideas turn into code without friction. Thanks to tools like GitHub Copilot and agentic environments, this is becoming real for individual developers.

But the moment you bring this into a large enterprise?

The vibes hit the wall.

Because in the enterprise, you’re not just writing code. You’re:

  • Following security policies

  • Managing code provenance

  • Avoiding license violations

  • Handling sensitive data

  • Complying with internal reviews and external regulations

So the question becomes: Can we bring governance to the groove? Or more practically—how do we enable AI-assisted development without compromising on trust, control, and auditability?

🧩 The Challenge: AI vs Enterprise Constraints

Enterprise development lives under layers of process for good reasons. But those layers can clash hard with the fluid nature of AI tools:

AI Dev Experience

Enterprise Reality

Code suggestions in real time

Must validate code origins and licenses

Natural language prompts

Risk of leaking IP or sensitive data

Faster prototyping

Slower gated release pipelines

External LLMs and APIs

Internal policies block outbound data

💡 Why Enterprises Should Still Care

Despite the friction, AI-assisted development can work in the enterprise—and it must. Here’s why:

  • Velocity still matters. Faster prototyping, fewer bugs, and reduced context switching improve developer productivity at scale.

  • Talent retention. Developers want to use these tools. Blocking them leads to shadow IT or attrition.

  • Competitive pressure. Your competitors are already adopting or at least experimenting—and gaining efficiency.

But success depends on intentional adoption.

🚧 What’s Coming in This Series

In this series, we’ll break down how to make AI-powered coding real in the enterprise. Topics will include:

  1. Secure-by-default prompt engineering

  2. Controlling code provenance and IP risk

  3. Audit trails and policy enforcement for AI usage

  4. Enterprise-ready Copilot & ChatGPT setups

  5. Designing agentic workflows that pass compliance

Because yes—you can bring the vibes to the enterprise. You just need to build the rails first.