How AI and Vibe Coding Puts Your Website Design Business At Risk

AI is everywhere — and so is everyone telling you to use it for everything. But when it comes to your website, your plugins, and the work you ship for clients, the wrong AI shortcut can quietly become a serious liability.Check out my Sparks Group Training for anyone and everyone involved in the publishing of websites, from copywriters to SEOs: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It’s a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and “is it just me?” moments.Welcome to a special bonus episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie. (Quick note — my podcast mic was misbehaving for this one, so the audio is not quite up to our usual standard. My producer Neal at Podknows has worked his magic to clean it up, so please do stick with it. The conversation is genuinely worth your time.)I am joined by senior developer Rob Fisher to talk about where AI actually helps in web design, where it absolutely does not, and the security and stability risks nobody is being loud enough about.We get into:Why vibe coding is not a shortcut, it is a stack of technical debt waiting to breakHow LLMs really work, and why they hallucinate when you let themWhy your prompt boundaries matter as much as your promptThe chatbot that gave a customer 85 percent off a 10,000 dollar orderWhat the October 2025 AWS outage tells us about AI first dev culturesWhy AI tools are junior developers, not senior ones, and what that means for your businessWhy vibe coded WordPress plugins are a house of cardsHow a “safe” plugin can become a Trojan horse with one auto updateWhat is actually changing in WordPress 7If you are a designer or developer trying to work out where AI fits into your business without putting your clients at risk, this one is for you.Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at hello@websitesmadesimple.co.ukSkip to the good bits:00:00 Bonus episode intro and audio note01:18 Where AI fits in running a web business02:34 Vibe coding and why it is a shortcut too far05:12 The flip side, vibe coding as a learning tool06:48 Tech debt: your vibe coded site is a liability waiting to break07:45 What AI cannot do for user journeys and design psychology09:20 How LLMs actually work, probability engines not brains11:30 Hallucinations and the suspiciously short prompt13:05 Prompt boundaries and staying on topic15:10 What system prompts at OpenAI and Anthropic actually look like17:00 The chatbot that gave away an 85 percent discount on a 10,000 dollar order19:40 AI first dev houses and the October 2025 AWS outage22:15 Microsoft layoffs and the AI replacement myth24:30 Why generative AI is a junior developer, not a senior one26:20 Vibe coded plugins, the house of cards problem28:50 The WordPress plugin ecosystem and what it lets in31:00 How a safe plugin becomes a Trojan horse overnight33:15 WP Rocket, All in One Migration and the malicious update problem34:50 WordPress 7 and the new AI APIs, and why it will not feel revolutionary37:00 Block editor improvements and the abstraction layer problem38:40 Final thoughts and how to get in touch