An identity verification AI startup is having all employees try vibe coding

• Daniel Yanisse of Checkr is making all non-technical staff vibe code with AI days and stipends.
• Checkr encourages every employee from HR to finance to vibe code apps for their workflows.
• Yanisse said the age of AI calls for people who could solve problems without too much guidance.

If you work for a San Francisco startup and don’t know how to code, you could soon be asked to get creative with vibe coding.

Checkr, an AI-powered background check company, gave Business Insider a glimpse of how employees are actually using AI.

Checkr CEO Daniel Yanisse said that the company is going “all in” and trying everything to encourage its employees to fully embrace AI — including staff that don’t work in engineering roles.

“We really pride ourselves on using AI to the maximum possible amount,” said Yanisse. “We gave every employee a monthly stipend to try AI tools, and we did AI days and demos. After one year, 95% of the employees use prompting daily.”

“This year, we’re going to level up and move to building with AI, as in vibe coding,” Yanisse added. “I’m working with all of our teams now, and we’re going to do our AI days soon in March, where we’re going to make every non-technical person vibe code their own business apps.”

Yanisse said that many employees who have no idea how to code, who work in finance, legal, and HR, are already vibecoding apps to automate their workflows and problem-solve, such as building tools that help clean up large spreadsheets.

While Checkr is evaluating a variety of builder tools like Lovable, Replit, and Claude Code, Yanisse said Cursor is a clear standout and “has amazing adoption” among both engineers and non-technical staff, but Lovable is the best place to start for people with no coding experience.

“Probably, we’re going to buy all of them and just use the right tool for the right person,” Yanisse said of different AI coding tools.

“We have AI solution engineers who are available to actually partner and help, so they would come and help you and unstuck you if you have a problem, and take you all the way to success,” Yanisse added. “And then you’re on your way because then we share success stories with everyone in the company.”

AI adoption in some companies can be complicated

In practice, data shows that AI adoption can be complicated in a large enterprise. Competence with AI tools can be very uneven across the board, and security risks can mount without clear guidelines on AI usage.

According to a survey published in November by Moveworks, an AI-powered platform that automates IT and HR support, most executives said that non-technical employees are playing a bigger role in driving AI use, and that 78% have seen successful AI projects originate directly from support staff looking to solve daily challenges.

The National Cybersecurity Alliance also wrote in its Annual Cybersecurity Attitudes and Behaviors Report that AI adoption has surged to 65% globally as of the end of 2025, but more than half of these AI users never received any training in privacy and security risks. The report surveyed over 6,500 workers worldwide.

“A few years ago, most businesses were still debating whether AI was something they really needed,” Louis Riat-Bonello of Optisearch, an AI-powered marketing platform that specializes in SEO, told Business Insider.

“The businesses getting the best results aren’t blindly chasing automation. They’re using AI to support smarter decisions, move faster, and free up teams to focus on strategy and creativity,” Riat-Bonello added. “That balance is what will matter long after the hype fades.”

Yanisse said that in the age of AI, the company is looking for creative and adaptable people, because while AI will eliminate some roles, it will create others.

“We are constantly training and helping people update their skills and careers,” said Yanisse. “The job of the product designer and the job of the marketer are all completely shifting right now.”

“We’re over 900 people, so we’re not a small startup, but I’m a startup guy, and I’m a builder,” Yanisse added. “The people who come here need to be OK with uncertainty, be self-driven, adaptable, flexible, willing to do new things, and solve new problems without too much guidance or structure.”