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Longtime accountant Wei Khjan Chan told Business Insider that he learned vibe coding to stay ahead of AI.
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Chan said he felt the pressure mount as headlines warned that AI could replace jobs like his.
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He told BI how he uses AI to create a greater impact in accounting – and lessons learned from vibe coding.
For more than 18 years, Wei Khjan Chan has worked as an accountant, a profession often flagged as at risk of automation. Every time he saw headlines warning that AI could replace jobs like his, he said he felt the pressure mount.
“It will be great if I get to know AI sooner. At least I’m replacing myself instead of letting others replace me,” the 39-year-old told Business Insider.
To stay ahead of the curve, Chan took up vibe coding, using AI tools to write code and build apps. The audit partner at an accounting and advisory firm in Malaysia said he stumbled upon vibecoding in June after attending weekend coding workshops in Singapore and Malaysia.
Despite having no technical background, Chan built a web app to solve a problem in his professional life: submitting expense claims after business trips.
The app uses AI-powered optical character recognition to scan and process receipts, automatically exporting them to files for his company’s finance team. He also uses AI to automate his workflow, such as generating invoices.
“This code is a bunch of JavaScript, which I obviously don’t understand,” he said, showing Business Insider his web app. “Without the vibe coding tools and skill set, an accountant cannot do this,” he added.
AI is not a ticket from the ledger – it is how to save it
The accountant said he didn’t learn vibecoding to change careers. Instead, he sees “AI knowledge” as a basic skill for all office jobs, like Excel.
Building his own apps showed him how powerful the tools can be: what once took weeks and an entire team to build as a proof of concept can now be prototyped in a single weekend, he said.
Chan also told Business Insider that he favors wider adoption. As a committee member of his local accountancy institute in Malaysia, he lobbies for more AI training on a large scale.
Fewer people are engaged in accounting, even though the demand for accounting services is increasing. With labor shortages, AI can help fill the gap, Chan said.
Lessons learned from vibe coding
Chan said that when he first started experimenting with AI, he was advised to write long, detailed prompts with “full context length.” But experience taught him that smaller, iterative steps work better.
“The first call is very important to get everything right,” he said. After that, when changes are needed, it is more efficient to adjust a small part at a time rather than adding a whole wish list.
He approaches it like managing an intern: Break tasks down into smaller, precise instructions. The more specific you are, the better the results, he said.
Not every lesson came easily. In one project, Chan built his database based on a single organization. When someone later asked for the support of several companies, he realized that he had to rebuild the entire structure.
“It’s a very fundamental change,” he said. “I ruined everything.”
Experience taught him that getting the architecture right from the start is critical because features and functions can always be added later.
In terms of troubleshooting, it’s basically like “complaining to the AI,” Chan said with a laugh. If the error message changes, that’s usually a good sign – the AI is working through the problem. If the same error keeps coming back, he said he will reset the conversation and rephrase the request with new examples.
And he said that, despite occasional glitches, vibe coding doesn’t require endless hours of grinding.
Chan usually tinkers after his kids go to bed, adding a feature here or refining a feature there. “It’s like playing a game,” he said.
Over time it builds up, and with a little guidance the pieces eventually come together.
Do you have a story to share about vibe coding? Contact this reporter at cmlee@businessinsider.com.
Read the original article on Business Insider
