In this paper, Adaptive gain scheme of Proportional-Integral (PI) controller to optimize the parameters of the PI for speed control of a universal motor is presented. The PI gains are allowed to vary on-line and automatically in order to avoid tedious task in manual control which eliminates the problems faced by the conventional PI controller. For conventional PI controller, the PI gains are optimized by trial and error method. In adaptive PI controller, their gains are allowed to vary on-line with motor speed and load variations. The performance of the presented controller is tested through a wide range of speeds as well as with load variations through simulation using MATLAB/SIMULINK and experimental results using DSP 1104. The simulation and experimental results show that the adaptive PI controller can be efficiently used for tuning parameters of the PI controller under distinct operation conditions.