New Delhi, Dec. 15 -- India's Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are in the middle of a structural reset. The center of gravity is shifting fast: as copilots, cloud-native platforms, and low-code workflows take over routine work, GCCs are redesigning teams for product development, data stewardship, and model operations. Over 80% of routine tasks are expected to be automated by 2026, pushing enterprises to rebuild their workforce mix.
The clearest signal is in what the industry is deprioritizing: L1 IT Support, Legacy Application Development, Manual QA/UAT, ERP Maintenance, and On-Prem Infrastructure Management are the top five roles being phased out or redefined. These functions are expected to contract by 9-11% over the next 12-18 months, marking a decisive shift away from maintenance and towards modernization.
Transactional tasks are being automated at scale, and human effort is climbing the value stack engineering the product, governing the data, and operating the models. GCCs expect high-value engineering and AI-governance roles to grow by 11% year-on-year, redefining India's traditional "back-office" identity into an AI-enabled engineering core.
Against this backdrop, here are the roles that will define 2026 and the ones that will steadily fade.
Top 5 Roles Emerging Strongly in 2026
1. Cybersecurity & AI Governance Architect - As AI systems become business-critical, governance-first design is non-negotiable. These architects will own model validation, risk control, data boundaries, and audit-ready compliance. With IndiaAI rules maturing, demand for this role is projected to rise by 29%, becoming both a compliance mandate and a competitive differentiator. 2. Prompt Engineer / AI Translator - No longer a niche job, prompt engineering is now central to AI deployment. R&D-heavy sectors like automotive and telecom are hiring these specialists at a 26% faster rate than last year, using them to accelerate innovation cycles and localize models for India's linguistic diversity. 3. GenAI Product Owner - With GenAI moving from pilots to scaled production, product owners who understand models, workflows, and domain constraints are becoming indispensable. Demand in manufacturing, engineering, and infrastructure could rise by 22%, as GCCs integrate GenAI deeply into Industry 4.0 programs. 4. AI Policy & Risk Strategist - As enterprises operationalize AI, they need leaders who can define policy frameworks, risk thresholds, and ethical guardrails. This role is expected to see 21% growth, sitting at the intersection of regulation, technology, and business impact. 5. GenAI Content QA Lead - Human-in-the-loop doesn't disappear, it becomes the quality layer. GCCs estimate that 19% of enterprise content will be AI-generated by 2026, making human QA crucial for accuracy, localization, bias mitigation, and compliance with enterprise guardrails.
Top 5 Roles Fading or Being Redefined in 2026
1. L1 IT Support Technician - Copilots and automated troubleshooting systems are cannibalizing traditional support layers. Routine ticket resolution may drop by 75%, converting these roles into exception-management tasks. 2. Legacy Application Developer - With cloud-native stacks and API-first architectures dominating, legacy coding roles are seeing accelerated sunset cycles. Demand is projected to shrink by 74%. 3. Manual QA / UAT Tester - AI-led testing platforms, self-healing scripts, and autonomous QA agents are reducing dependency on manual testers. The volume of manual testing effort may shrink by 72%. 4. ERP Maintenance Engineer - Cloud ERP and composable enterprise platforms have cut the need for large maintenance teams. Traditional ERP maintenance roles are expected to decline by 69%, giving way to configuration and platform engineering. 5. On-Prem Infrastructure Manager - As enterprises migrate to hybrid and multi-cloud ecosystems, the need for dedicated on-prem infrastructure talent is declining. These roles may be reduced by 67%, replaced by cloud orchestration, automation, and observability specialists.
The Big Shift: From Execution to Trust-Centered AI Delivery
India is no longer just an execution hub, its GCCs are becoming global centers for AI trust, governance, and product stewardship. Over 25-30% of new hiring is expected to be in AI engineering, governance, cybersecurity, and model-ops capabilities.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from TechCircle.