From AI Bubble to Personal Infrastructure: The Era of Vibe Coding and Citizen Developers

As the hype around the “AI bubble” cools, many professionals are asking a practical question: what will actually improve my day-to-day work? The answer is increasingly shifting away from expensive, one-size-fits-all enterprise tools and toward something more personal, building simple, reliable digital solutions that fit your own workflow. In this session, Tao Chun Liu will show how project managers and other professionals can move from being passive AI users to becoming active builders. Using “vibe coding” (creating small tools with natural-language instructions) and an open-source mindset, you can prototype solutions, automate routine tasks, and reduce friction in reporting and coordination—without needing a computer science background. This topic is especially relevant in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, where teams across different industries and public sector delivery are under pressure to do more with leaner resources, while maintaining quality, safety, and accountability. Whether you work in a project environment or support one, this talk focuses on practical ways to build “personal infrastructure” that helps you work faster, communicate better, and adapt with less dependency on rigid systems.