Narrator: Programmers were never not needed.

“No longer needed” is probably never going to happen, but IMO needed by fewer companies is inevitable. I see “vibe coding” as an extension to those website builders like Squarespace, definitely not suitable for a large website or a company whose entire business model is software and/or web based services, but good enough that the owner of a small, non-tech company who just happens to need a website can do it themselves instead of paying someone on Fiverr or something to do it. Unfortunately that means new developers looking for easy experience building jobs will be even more limited than now.

Like in pretty much all branches, the AI will eventually just be another tool. There still needs to be someone there to actually understand what the tool produces or it will result in catastrophees. You don’t want to live in a building structurally designed by an AI without oversight nor fly in a plane programmed y an AI without oversight. Even for non-critical branches, there will be someone who directs the AI when it is e.g. composing the next shitty pop-song.