The GCC Metamorphosis

The journey of Global Capability Centers in India is a metamorphosis. From a simple cost-arbitrage mechanism for routine IT support and administrative tasks GCCs have undergone a complete transformation. Today, it contributes to high-skilled employment and economic development: India is not just participating in the GCC model,  it is significantly influencing how it evolves.

As of early 2026, nearly 2,000 companies run GCCs in India, employing over 2.2 million professionals and generating ~$70 billion in annual export revenue, according to a Deloitte report.

“GCCs is a key strategy to deliver competitive advantage by moving work globally.  Today, more than 50 per cent of companies setting up GCCs globally choose India, and roughly 30–35 per cent of all organizations with offshore or nearshore centres operate in the country,” said Rohan Lobo, Partner and GCC Industry Leader at Deloitte South Asia.

The Government of India’s Economic Survey 2024–25 formally acknowledged that GCCs have “moved beyond back-office roles to become strategic hubs for Engineering R&D,” particularly in aerospace, defence, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing.

Looking ahead, projections are even higher. Industry bodies, including the Confederation of Indian Industry, envision up to ~5,000 GCCs in India by 2030.

Talent, technology, and strategy play a big role in shaping this journey.

From Cost Arbitrage to Capability Advantage

For two decades, the narrative was simple: India equaled cost efficiency. That story has changed in a measurable way.  Companies from the USA, UK, Germany, Japan, and Denmark etc are establishing GCCs in India explicitly for capability, innovation, and speed – cost being an additional advantage.

Balancing cost efficiency with value creation is all about shifting the metric of success. Cost advantage remains relevant, but it is no longer the only differentiator. GCCs today must move from output-based delivery to outcome ownership, where they are accountable for platforms, architectures, and measurable business impact. This requires investing in resilient systems, embedding compliance and security by design, and translating emerging technologies into production-grade capabilities.

Japanese manufacturing firms are choosing India for ER & D. German engineering-led GCCs are treating Pune and Hyderabad as product innovation centres, not shared service hubs. While US-headquartered firms still account for over 65 per cent of GCC presence, the nature of work has moved to higher value engineering and product ownership in some areas. Mega GCCs with 5,000-plus professionals are running entire global portfolios — spanning engineering, cybersecurity, and product management — directly from India. Many Companies are also looking at the huge India market for their products and for establishing manufacturing, supply chain, logistics and regional export hubs, explained Lobo.

“When GCCs take ownership of end-to-end outcomes rather than discrete tasks, cost efficiency becomes a by-product of better engineering, not the primary objective. At Siemens Technology and Services, this balance is achieved by combining engineering depth with operational discipline, building reusable platforms, accelerating innovation cycles, and tying delivery to KPIs such as efficiency, reliability, and scalability,” said Pankaj Vyas, MD & CEO, Siemens Technology and Services.

Through strategic consolidation of processes and capabilities, GCCs deliver unprecedented cost efficiencies while establishing standardized operational frameworks that scale seamlessly across international markets. This model enables continuous, round-the-clock business operations that respond dynamically to global market demands. Similarly, HCLTech enables GCCs to drive business outcomes, not just efficiency. “We partner across maturity stages, delivering cost efficiency through automation and standardization, and value through domain expertise and enterprise alignment, to build lean, future ready GCCs,” said Kiran Babu Cherukuri, EVP and Global GCC Practice Head, HCLTech.

GCCs have evolved far beyond traditional cost centers, now functioning as strategic value generators integral to product innovation and comprehensive enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives.

Why  Talent Is the Strategic Differentiator

India contributes ~28 per cent of the global STEM workforce and ~23 per cent of global software engineering talent. This depth is beginning to translate into global roles. Global leadership roles in Indian GCCs have grown at ~40 per cent CAGR over the last five years, reaching 6,500-plus roles in 2024, including 1,050-plus women leaders. By 2030, this leadership pool is projected to exceed 30,000 global leaders based in India.

At the same time, maturity is improving. “Attrition has declined from 13 per cent in 2023 to ~9 per cent in 2025, with 81 per cent of GCCs citing upskilling as the primary retention lever — indicating a shift to structured talent development programs and increasing brands of global corporations in the labor market,” added Lobo.

Any company’s talent strategy is increasingly focused on building depth while continuing to scale. It is no longer just about accessing talent, but about developing teams with strong domain knowledge, product thinking, and ownership.

For instance, Siemens Technology and Services, follows a balanced approach, combining targeted lateral hiring in areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud, cybersecurity, and UX with systematic internal capability building. “A key part of this is our Communities of Experts (CoEs), which act as knowledge hubs across critical technology domains. These communities enable specialists to build deep expertise, share best practices, and scale learnings across projects and business units. This is complemented by structured fresher programs, reskilling of domain experts, university partnerships, and a learning model that blends on-the-job experience with formal training and mentoring,” Vyas explained.

“We have been able to maintain attrition levels that are lower than industry benchmarks. This is driven less by compensation and more by the environment we create where engineers can learn and grow,” Vyas continued.

The market for niche skills is competitive, and attrition pressures are visible across the industry. Ultimately, retention is a function of relevance and progression. Organizations that invest in meaningful work, capability building, and clear career pathways are better positioned to build stable, future-ready talent ecosystems.

“We hire for long term impact. Talent is matched to GCC maturity while building future ready skills across AI, GenAI, and platform engineering. To reduce attrition, we focus on ownership-led roles, clear career pathways, and continuous upskilling as GCCs evolve into AI driven innovation hubs,” said the global GCC practice head of HCLTech.

AI: Displacement and Expansion Connundrum

AI is reshaping the GCC portfolio. Transactional and repetitive processes face potential displacement.  “Estimates suggest 40–60 per cent of such work could be automated, with further change likely as models mature. Yet the paradox is that GCCs continue to grow at record pace. The work being displaced is being replaced by higher-value, technology-intensive work. Engineering, Research & Development (ER&D) GCCs are growing ~1.3x faster than overall GCC growth,” added Lobo, Partner, Deloitte South Asia.

AI is clearly an accelerator for GCCs, but only when it is engineered and deployed with discipline. Today, 55–60 per cent of GCCs are making meaningful investments in Agentic AI, while almost all are running pilots. They are becoming the teams that build, govern, and deploy the AI that is transforming enterprises globally.

“In our operations, AI is already improving how we build and operate systems through digital twins, industrial copilots, and automation across engineering lifecycles. It helps reduce iteration cycles, improve decision-making, and enhance human-machine interaction on the shop floor,” explained the CEO of Siemens Technology and Services.

However, scaling AI brings structural challenges. Many organizations are still dealing with fragmented data, legacy systems, and technical debt. Without strong data foundations and interoperable architectures, AI remains confined to pilots. Governance is equally critical. As AI moves into industrial environments, explainability becomes essential. Systems must clearly show how decisions are made to enable trust, validation, and compliance. This must be supported by strong cybersecurity, traceability, and data controls.

“The opportunity is higher productivity, faster innovation and deeper enterprise ownership. The challenge is equally clear: data readiness, governance, cybersecurity, clear KPIs and large-scale reskilling,” Vyas added.

AI is a key accelerator, shifting GCCs from delivery centres to transformation hubs across product innovation, cybersecurity, and ecosystems. Key challenges remain around AI scale, reskilling, and responsible governance.

India’s GCC journey has evolved from cost led delivery to talent driven transformation and autonomous portfolio ownership, accelerated post COVID by AI adoption. The next phase, GCC 4.0, is AI led, value driven, and ecosystem enabled.