Perplexity AI’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, has a suggestion for internet users: spend less time on doom-scrolling on Instagram and more time on AI. He argues that learning AI tools will give users an edge as automation creates new roles requiring AI skills.
“Spend less time doom-scrolling on Instagram, spend more time using AI,” Srinivas said in a podcast with Matthew Berman. “Not because we want your usage, but simply because that’s your way to add value to the society,” he added.
Srinivas’s concern is valid. Doom-scrolling is one of the biggest concerns among health experts, who have warned against bad effects, including a reduction in attention span and memory retention, of endlessly scrolling through reels on Instagram and similar format platforms. These abilities are crucial in cognitive functioning, but learning AI skills could bridge the gap.
“People who are at the frontier of using AI are going to be way more employable than people who are not,” he said. “That’s guaranteed to happen.”
Yet, people are slow to adapt, he said. “The human race has never been extremely fast at adapting. This is truly testing the limits in terms of how fast we can adapt, especially with a piece of technology that’s evolving every three months or six months,” he said.
Srinivas’s emphasis on learning AI skills comes as Perplexity announced a partnership with Bharti Airtel—India’s second-largest telecom company— to offer a free one-year subscription to its premium services, worth ₹17,000, to mobile, broadband, and DTH users to increase adoption in countries like India, where AI penetration is still behind most countries. Users can access Perplexity Pro not just to ask complex questions but also to train themselves in several job fields.
Those who cannot keep up risk losing their jobs, especially as AI continues to percolate into every industry. According to Srinivas, new opportunities will come from entrepreneurs—those who adapt by starting companies or learning AI to contribute to emerging firms.
Srinivas’s advice comes at a time when leading companies across categories are laying off hundreds of employees as part of their cost optimisation efforts. More than 100,000 tech jobs have been eliminated globally in 2025, with Microsoft, Intel, Meta, Google, and Amazon trimming a sizable fraction of their workforce.
The Indian-born CEO is pitching his AI startup as a true rival to Google, underscoring how Perplexity AI offers dedicated AI tools that can help people learn skills faster. In doing so, Srinivas has not ruled out OpenAI as competition.