Barely a year old, Base44 puts lofty and inaccessible coding tasks into the hands of the layperson – as demonstrated by its 55-second Super Bowl ad. The spot features a cast of quintessential office workers, who quickly realize that with Base44, they all have app-building capabilities. The colleagues excitedly experiment with building inventory trackers, trash duty monitors, a party planner, and even a dating app. Before their lunch breaks end, they’ve built an array of apps, all of which have a direct tie-in to their daily lives. There’s a parallel at play between the colleagues becoming app builders on their lunch breaks and the potential for Super Bowl viewers to quickly code an app before the commercial break ends.

Despite the promise of frictionless convenience, Base44’s lighthearted take on app creation is already generating ambivalence. While one user comments, “There are now no barriers. Congrats,” another calls the venture “legit an affront to humanity.” The spot is likely to land differently across an audience that’s trying to balance their desire for democratized tech access with looming fears about job losses. ‘Vibe coding’ has already been gaining traction as a revolutionary but controversial tech advancement, in which language prompts are replacing traditional programming. 71% of Americans fear that AI could lead to permanent job losses, and with job scarcity disproportionately affecting the graduate coding space, Base44’s ad could be met with fear rather than enthusiasm. By depicting office workers using the platform to enhance their working day rather than replace their workplace tasks, the spot goes some way to alleviating these fears. Tech brands should weave reassurance into AI-enhanced product launches. For example, in India, the launch of the first AI-powered city was met with optimism rather than fear because of its clear focus on creating new jobs rather than replacing people, while Target’s AI chatbot is designed to work with its employees rather than instead of them.