Even pros could not get AI to build a hair salon’s software in three weeks
Wix’s CEO says his own developers failed the test, and that is why small businesses will keep buying ready-made software.
20VC with Harry Stebbings · Wix Founder: Will Base44 Win the Vibe-Coding Wars? | The Truth About the Economics of Vibe-CodingAvishai Abrahami, the founder and chief executive of the website company Wix, was explaining why he is not worried that small shops will suddenly start building their own software with AI. His customers, he argued, are the pizza store next door and the neighborhood hairdresser, and they are not going to type prompts to create the systems that run their businesses.
Then he put it bluntly: “You’re not going to vibe-code Shopify no matter how good you are.” By vibe-coding, he means building software by describing what you want in plain English and letting artificial intelligence write the code.
He said he learned this by trying it inside his own company. After Wix bought Base44, its tool that builds apps from a prompt, managers asked whether they should rebuild Wix’s ready-made business systems inside Base44. To test it, they asked a team of professional developers to build just the behind-the-scenes rules for running a hair salon, things like bookings, staff schedules, and payments.
After a week, Abrahami said, the team had built only a little bit. So they brought in a stronger group, the team that had originally built that same salon system for Wix, and after two more weeks they still had not matched it.
That, in his view, is the difference between a demo and a business. A prompt can make something that looks like a booking page, but the rules underneath, what happens when a customer cancels, when a stylist calls in sick, or when two people book the same chair, are complicated. He added that editing those complicated builds with AI is “really annoying,” especially when you try to fix them visually.
Abrahami does not think prompts will lose. He believes the future is a combination, with some customers using AI builders like Base44 and most small businesses staying on ready-made platforms like Wix. But for a real shop, he argues, the template still wins because someone else already solved the hard parts.
Questions people ask
What does “business logic” actually mean for a hairdresser?
Business logic is the set of rules behind the screen. For a salon, it decides how long an appointment lasts, which stylist can take it, when to block a chair, how to charge for a no-show, and how to pay staff. It is invisible, but when it breaks, the shop cannot function.
What is Base44?
Base44 is an AI app builder now owned by Wix that creates working software from a written description. Instead of picking a template and changing the colors and text, you describe the app you want and the system writes much of the code. Wix bought it to reach people who want something more custom than a standard website.
Does this mean templates will always beat AI builders?
No, at least not for everyday shops. Templates bundle years of fixes for taxes, refunds, reminders, calendars, and other edge cases that a new AI build would have to relearn. For unusual ideas with no template, starting from a prompt can make sense, but the template starts much closer to finished.