Power Pages: Is AI the End of Lists and Forms?

Vibe Coding

Vibe coding is the process of using natural language to describe an application with the goal of having AI generate code to meet the requirements.

Since Power Pages allows you to include all sorts of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you can use the code generated by vibe coding as part of your Power Pages site.

This seems to be something that Microsoft is encouraging. Back in July, the product team announced a new feature that allows you to use Power Pages to host a Single Page Application (SPA). This was followed by another post that detailed how to use AI to generate that SPA.

I think the most common use case for vibe coding with Power Pages would be to build out web application functionality that would otherwise be implemented by the no-code/low-code functionality offered by Lists and Forms. So does this new trend mean the end of Lists and Forms, and more generally, no-code/low-code platforms?

AI as a Tool

I’m the first person to admit that I have not embraced AI as much as I probably should be.

There isn’t any particular reason for that – I have no philosophical objections to it. When I’ve used it, it has been quite helpful. I just haven’t got into the habit yet as much as I should.

I think, in general, that AI is a great tool, and that professionals in our space should be trying to leverage it where they can, as they should with any tools at their disposal. This can include having AI generate code, even entire applications. However, I hope that the Power Pages product team continues to invest in features like Lists and Forms because I don’t see vibe coding as a replacement for no-code/low-code, at least not anytime soon, because it is important that any code in production be maintained and supported.

Let’s consider a couple of different scenarios: vibe coding as a tool using by professional developers, and vibe coding as a tool used by citizen developers.

Vibe Coding by Pro Developers

If you have someone with a development background using AI to generate code, and all of that code is being reviewed, and that person will be available to support that code just like if they wrote it, then I don’t really have any challenges with how that code will be maintained and supported in the future. However, I might challenge you on your choice of Power Pages.

Power Pages licensing isn’t cheap, especially compared to hosting a web application yourself in Azure. So, if you’re going to get AI to generate a complete web application, what benefit are you getting by hosting within Power Pages versus in an Azure Web App?

Certainly there are benefits to Power Pages – for example, it includes authentication, the Web API, and an enterprise-level hosting architecture you don’t need to come up with yourself. But I’m not sure if there is enough value there to justify the licensing costs. Perhaps on some projects, but I think there would be many other projects where it would make more sense to figure out the hosting yourself.

I think vibe coding by professional developers on a Power Pages project makes a lot of sense when it is supplementing functionality built with the no-code/low-code capabilities. Maybe that is a PCF Control on a form. Or maybe you can uses Lists and Forms to build most of your application, but there is one particular page where you need advanced functionality that you build out as an SPA. But if you’re replacing the entire site with an SPA, I think it is tough to justify the licensing costs.

Vibe Coding by Citizen Developers

Citizen developers have the most to gain from no-code/low-code platforms. They understand what the application needs to do, but don’t have the skills to write code to do it. So no-code/low-code platforms give them the tools to create the applications without code.

Citizen developers would also have the skills to describe to AI what they want. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to review the code that AI produces. While they can test the code to ensure it meets the functional requirements, they wouldn’t be able to verify the quality or security of that code. So unless you have a professional developer that can take responsibility for that code, which includes reviewing it, and supporting it long-term, I would not recommend using that vibe code in production.

Who Is Responsible for the Code?

One comment I heard in Las Vegas was that we’ve been using generated code for years and years. If you think about it, when you create a Power App (either model-driven or canvas) code is being generated based on the instructions that you provide. This is very true.

However, for me the important question is about responsibility. Who is responsible for maintaining that code?

In the case of Power Apps, if the generated code doesn’t work as expected, you can call Microsoft for support.

If your vibe code doesn’t work, who you gonna call? The Ghostbusters aren’t going to be much help, so probably the AI agent that was used to create it. I don’t think that is a comfortable situation.

I want citizen developers to continue to be empowered to build applications in a secure and supportable way. I think the best way to do that, at least for now, is for them to use no-code/low-code platforms, and for vibe coding to be a tool used by professional developers to boost their productivity.

So until the day where we can completely trust the code that AI produces, I hope Microsoft continues to invest in no-code/low-code features like Lists and Forms in Power Pages.