How India’s growing GCC ecosystem generated jobs and reshaped upskilling needs

Picture this: India’s Global Capability Centre (GCC) ecosystem is experiencing an unprecedented surge in both scale and sophistication. From 1.7 million professionals in 2023 to 1.9 million in 2024, and an estimated 2.1 million by the end of 2025, the sector is on track to employ over 3.1 million people by 2030. This growth underscores India’s position as the global hub for enterprise innovation, technology, and capability building, driving both job creation and skill transformation at scale.

A recent report by ANSR says that beyond direct employment, GCCs also generate a significant multiplier effect across the economy. For every direct job created, an estimated one indirect job emerges in allied services such as telecommunications, facilities management, and supply chains. Even more transformative are the induced jobs, which multiply nearly threefold, driven by increased spending by GCC employees on housing, retail, education, and mobility. 

Together, this creates up to four additional jobs for every direct GCC role, fueling a powerful ripple effect across India’s urban and emerging economies. As per ANSR, Fortune 500 GCCs are actively engaged in AI-driven work. This combination of scale and specialisation has made India the epicentre of AI-led enterprise transformation. GCCs account for 22.5 per cent of India's AI talent demand, transforming from cost-arbitrage centres to strategic AI command centres. These organisations are building full-stack GenAI teams, establishing AI Centres of Excellence, and creating responsible AI governance frameworks that align with global enterprise objectives.

The report further says that as GCCs diversify beyond metros, cities like Indore, Jaipur, and Trivandrum are fast becoming the next frontiers of growth. 

Together, they produce 50,000 plus graduates annually from IITs, NITs, and IIMs, and offer 15–25 per cent lower salary costs, reducing overall OPEX. In such cities, attrition rates are 10–15 per cent lower than in Tier-1 metros, creating a more stable, scalable, and cost-efficient talent base for the next phase of GCC expansion.

With this dual momentum, AI-driven skill evolution and emerging city expansion, India’s GCCs are not only creating millions of jobs but also shaping the world’s most future-ready, innovation-led workforce.

“The world’s next competitive advantage won’t be defined by who builds the most advanced AI models, but by who can mobilise talent to make AI real inside the enterprise. 

On this front, India’s Global Capability Centres are taking a historic leadership role. With the world’s deepest AI talent pool and enterprise-scale ambition, GCCs are no longer extensions of global companies; they’re becoming the epicentres of AI-powered transformation. The future will belong to those who use AI not just to optimise processes, but to reimagine value creation and accelerate business impact,” remarked Vikram Ahuja, Co-founder, ANSR, CEO, 1Wrk.

Market experts point out that as India’s GCC ecosystem expands at unprecedented speed, there is a strong shift from transactional work to higher-value digital and engineering roles. 

This evolution is driving significant employment growth and strengthening India’s position as a global capability hub. 

“Our experience shows GCCs are rapidly scaling specialised talent in technology, HR operations, and advanced payroll environments. A remarkable trend today is the rise of mid-sized enterprises establishing focused GCCs, especially in Tier-2 cities. Locations like Coimbatore, Mysuru, and Vizag offer high-quality talent with strong retention, making them ideal for targeted capability-building. This decentralised expansion is creating more equitable employment opportunities while helping firms diversify and de-risk their India strategy,” said Subramanyam S, CEO, AscentHR Technologies.

This expert further adds that as GCCs take on more strategic mandates, the capability mix is shifting sharply toward digital fluency, AI-powered HR, and compliance-led operations. “Global firms now expect deeper expertise in regulatory frameworks, data protection, and payroll governance,” said Subramanyam.

A few other market experts also observe that India’s GCC ecosystem is undergoing a generational reset, moving from a cost centre to a strategic multiplier for global innovation. The focus today is on talent arbitrage, where success is measured by strategic contributions and business impact. “A lot of work is about enabling digital transformation and operational efficiency using AI. For this shift to succeed, the workforce requires a profound skills reset: the conjunction of deep domain expertise with cutting-edge AI capabilities, especially around GenAI,” observed Rajan Sethuraman, CEO of LatentView Analytics.

The strategic embrace of the GCC model is evident across the country, with virtually every state in India formulating its own GCC policy, underscoring how seriously this model is being embraced by the industry and policymakers. Emerging cities such as Indore, Mysuru, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad are attracting GCCs, offering lower operating costs and lower attrition.

“Scaling in newer regions presents challenges, including site selection, local compliance, and coordination across multiple locations, which often keeps global companies anchored to established hubs. Companies that are willing to invest in a long-term strategy for these locations through partner-assisted and build-operate-transfer models. These options enable mid-sized global firms to quickly establish compact innovation hubs, effectively reducing risk and accelerating the strategic outcome that India now promises,” added Sethuraman.

It is a well-known fact that India’s GCC ecosystem is growing beyond Tier-1 cities now, reshaping jobs and skills across the country. Currently, India has over 1800 GCCs, almost 50 per cent of the global total. These GCCs employ around 1.9 million workforce. By 2030, this is expected to grow to about 2400 GCCs employing around 2.8 – 3 million workforce. Tier-2 cities such as Coimbatore, Kochi, Jaipur, and Indore are becoming major hubs, offering 20–30 per cent lower costs and hosting more than 200 GCCs.

“This shift to smaller towns is also opening doors for young professionals, with 14–22 per cent of new hires now being freshers in digital roles. At the same time, “Nano GCCs”—small, specialised centres focused on AI, semiconductors, cybersecurity, and ESG—are increasing continuously. By 2030, most GCCs are expected to adopt AI-driven governance and automation, driving demand for skills in cloud, data engineering, AI and ML, cybersecurity, and regulatory tech,” said Neeti Sharma, CEO, TeamLease Digital.

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