New Delhi, Nov. 18 -- Nearly six out of 10 Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India have moved beyond pilot stages of artificial intelligence (AI) deployment, according to a new report that projects the sector's workforce to swell to 3.46 million by 2030, adding 1.3 million new jobs.

The report published on Tuesday by staffing firm NLB Services titled "Workforce 2.0 Reset - India's GCCs Go AI-Native" indicates that GCCCs are no longer mere cost-arbitrage units; many are transforming into AI-native innovation hubs.

The report underscores a structural change in how GCCs operate. Once largely cost-arbitrage units, many centres are now evolving into AI-led innovation hubs. The trend aligns with broader industry data. India hosts more than 1,800 GCCs, employing about 2 million professionals, according to Nasscom. EY India's GCC Pulse Survey notes that GCC hiring rose 5-7% between July and September 2025, driven by high-demand roles in FinOps, site reliability engineering and platform engineering.

AI adoption is spreading rapidly. NLB estimates that 70% of GCCs are investing in generative AI (GenAI) in 2025. By 2026, over 60% plan to build dedicated AI safety and governance teams, while 75% expect to integrate GenAI into daily operations. This shift is reshaping job roles: 27% of mid-level and 25% of junior tech positions are being redesigned to work alongside AI copilots or automation platforms.

New roles are emerging across the GCC landscape-AI governance architects, prompt engineers, GenAI product owners and AI risk strategists are among the most sought-after. Meanwhile, legacy roles such as L1 IT support, manual QA and on-premise infrastructure management are fading as centres pivot to AI-native, product-focused models.

Industry leaders say the shift goes beyond tooling. Brijesh Patel, founder and CTO of SNDK Corp, told TechCircle that GCCs are "moving away from outsourcing" and embedding themselves deeper in global product teams. He cited the example of his own GCC, which uses AI to automate support ticket triage-summarising, categorising and routing tickets-leading to significant gains in accuracy and productivity.

Furthermore, upskilling is emerging as a critical priority. Ritesh Malhotra, chief business officer (enterprise) at Great Learning, said GCCs are pushing GenAI training to non-tech functions including HR, operations and customer support. These programmes rely on hands-on labs and real-world use cases to help employees apply AI to business workflows.

GCCs are also diversifying geographically. NLB projects that 39% of GCC talent will be based in Tier-II and Tier-III cities by 2030, with clusters in Coimbatore, Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar gaining traction. This mirrors TechCircle's reporting on the rise of "twin-city" models, where companies operate primary GCCs in metros and satellite centres in smaller cities to tap local talent pools, reduce attrition and lower operating costs.

Policy incentives are boosting the trend, as states expand digital infrastructure and offer specialised talent programmes to attract investments. As infrastructure improves, non-metro cities are emerging as credible centres for engineering, analytics and AI product development.

AI governance is another area witnessing rapid maturity. According to NLB, 33% of GCCs have set up central AI committees or Centres of Excellence, while 29% manage oversight through audit and compliance teams. Governance models vary across hubs: Delhi-NCR (39%) and Bengaluru (37%) prefer centralised structures, whereas Hyderabad (35%) and Mumbai (34%) favour decentralised, business-unit-led approaches.

The GCC-as-a-Service model is also gaining momentum. LTIMindtree recently rolled out an AI-powered GCC-as-a-Service offering under its BlueVerse Agentic AI ecosystem, covering the entire lifecycle-from entity formation to operations and eventual handover-and embedding AI into governance and workforce integration.

Industry experts say India's STEM talent base positions the country uniquely to address global AI skill shortages. Bengaluru remains the dominant hub for advanced R&D-led GCCs, while Hyderabad leads in hi-tech capacity. Though Tier-I cities will continue to anchor leadership, strategy and innovation, NLB and TechCircle point to steady expansion into emerging locations.

Taken together, the findings point to a GCC ecosystem entering a fully AI-native phase. Beyond cost optimisation, India's GCCs are becoming strategic engines of product development, AI governance and distributed global delivery-cementing the country's role as the world's largest hub for enterprise AI and engineering capability.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from TechCircle.