Artificial Intelligence has changed the way people participate in society and overturned century-old assumptions that literacy is the foundation for progress and opportunity, said Nitin Paranjpe, Chairman of Hindustan Unilever Ltd..

He described AI as driving a “silent revolution” in which, for the first time, access to knowledge need not begin with text but can take place through voice.

“For the first time, you don’t need to read and write in order to be able to ask questions or learn a skill,” Paranjpe said while delivering the lecture on ‘Artificial Intelligence for Aam Aadmi’ at the 44th Palkhivala Memorial Lecture in Chennai on Saturday.

The Chairman of the country’s largest consumer goods maker said the convergence of conversational AI with Indian languages is beginning to redefine and challenge the very meaning of literacy.

He cited real-life examples of farmers in Maharashtra leveraging MahaVistaar, an AI-based advisory platform, to interact in regional languages for needs ranging from optimal crop practices, season for cultivation and other agricultural requirements. “It’s showing great results,” Paranjpe said, highlighting that the Union Budget 2026 has expanded this initiative across the country with the announcement of Bharat Vistaar.

AI, he observed, has sparked two sharply contrasting emotions of awe and anxiety. He said while AI systems can compose poetry, help cure rare diseases, and do large scale tasks they can simultaneously displace thousands of jobs, concentrate power and spread falsehood. “That is the AI paradox,” he said.

Paranjpe emphasised that AI’s potential must be harnessed for broader public good in areas like agriculture, healthcare, legal access and targeted wealth distribution.

Unlike many other nations, Paranjpe argued, India’s AI ambition should be firmly centred on voice-over-text, local languages over English, and large-scale skill and capability building that begins early and reaches widely.

“In the end, it’s not the AI that will threaten livelihood and jobs but the exclusion of AI that will threaten livelihood and jobs,”