4 min readAug 20, 2026 05:41 PM IST
First published on: Aug 9, 2026 at 09:06 AM IST
Vineet Nayar, former CEO of HCL Technologies, has spent four decades in tech and a decade working with rural schoolchildren in India, and in his new book, Humans First, Machines Second, he argues the two experiences taught him that people do not achieve extraordinary things by knowing more, but by believing more. In this interview, Nayar explains why he is less worried about AI outpacing human intelligence than about humans quietly lowering their own expectations of themselves as machines take over more tasks, and why restoring belief, especially in the young, matters more than investing in technology alone.
By placing ‘humans’ before ‘machines’ in the title, what do you want to say about the relationship between people and AI?
Most people think I wrote a book about AI. I didn’t. I wrote a book about people. As machines become more capable, I am asking if human beings will still believe they are capable of extraordinary things? That question stayed with me for years and eventually became the reason I wrote this book. Every conversation I heard was about investing in AI. Almost no conversation was about investing in people. Yet, my four decades in the tech industry has taught me something simple. Technology creates opportunities, but people create breakthroughs.
What prompted you to write this book now? Was there a particular gap in the public conversation about AI that you felt needed to be addressed?
When you spend your time with two crore rural children, you stop thinking only about technology and start thinking about possibilities. Many of these children begin life with every disadvantage imaginable, yet they dream. They believe that tomorrow can be better than today. That belief is precious because it is often the only thing they truly own. Suddenly, the world was talking as if machines would soon do everything better than humans. I found myself asking what happens if a generation of young people begins to believe that before they have even discovered what they are capable of?
A central idea running through the book is that people should harness AI without surrendering what makes them uniquely human. What, in your view, is the real danger?
I have spent four decades building technology businesses and the last decade working with children in government schools. Those two worlds seem different but they have taught me exactly the same lesson. People don’t achieve extraordinary things because they know more. They achieve extraordinary things because they believe more. The moment people stop believing in themselves, they stop attempting things they once thought were beyond them. That is why I don’t worry about machines becoming smarter. We have spent decades trying to make that happen. The question that worries me is different. As machines become more capable, will people begin expecting less of themselves?
If a reader were to finish the book remembering just one lesson, what would you want it to be?
My life changed because, at different moments, I found people who believed in me before I fully believed in myself. That gave me the courage to take risks, fail, learn and keep going. Over the years, I have realised that this is true of almost every extraordinary person I have met. Somewhere along the way, someone gave them the confidence to dream a little bigger than they would have on their own. That is what I hope this book does.
Vineet Nayar's Humans First, Machines Second. 
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