Every week brings another GCC announcement. A global bank expands in Bengaluru. A healthcare giant launches an AI centre in Hyderabad. A retailer opens a digital innovation hub in Gurugram. Yet behind the steady stream of headlines lies a far bigger story. The real transformation is not the number of centres being established, but the role they are beginning to play.
India’s GCCs are no longer supporting global businesses from the sidelines; they are increasingly helping define how those businesses innovate, operate, and compete. As enterprises race to become AI-first organisations, GCCs are evolving from talent hubs into strategic nerve centres housing global leadership, driving enterprise-wide transformation, and, in many cases, functioning as a second headquarters for some of the world’s largest companies.
From captive centres to strategic nerve centres
This transformation did not happen overnight. According to Smitha Hemmigae, Managing Director and Chief Market Officer at ANSR, the GCC model has undergone multiple waves of evolution.
“If I had to version the GCC journey, I would say we are now at GCC 9.0,” says Hemmigae. “We (India) have moved from staff augmentation centres to innovation hubs, and now to what are effectively second headquarters for global enterprises.”
The early GCCs were largely focused on providing talent and operational support. Over time, however, they expanded into product development, engineering, analytics, cybersecurity and digital transformation. Today, they are increasingly entrusted with enterprise-wide mandates and global leadership responsibilities.
“In many organisations, practically every function that exists in the headquarters is now represented in India,” Hemmigae notes. “You have global leaders based here, teams owning enterprise-level outcomes, and functions that are critical to business growth.”
Why AI is rewriting the GCC playbook
The rise of AI is accelerating this evolution. While AI adoption remains a boardroom priority across industries, enterprises are increasingly turning to their GCCs to lead experimentation, development and deployment efforts. India has emerged as a preferred destination because of its deep technology talent pool and growing AI ecosystem.
According to Hemmigae, nearly 70% of existing GCCs already operate AI CoE, AI platforms, innovation labs or governance frameworks supporting enterprise-wide transformation.
“Many of the AI systems, platforms and innovation programs are being built from India,” she says. “These centres are helping drive the larger AI agenda across the enterprise.”
The shift is also changing how organisations define success. For years, the industry measured GCC performance through headcount growth. Today, value creation has become the key metric.
“The conversation is no longer about how many people you employ,” says Hemmigae. “The conversation is about what value is being generated from the centre.”
The rise of the AI-first workforce
As AI becomes embedded into enterprise operations, workforce strategies are undergoing a fundamental redesign. Organisations are increasingly adopting what ANSR describes as a “core and flex” workforce model. Under this approach, companies build a permanent core of strategic talent while maintaining flexibility through contingent and specialised resources. But at the same time, the nature of talent demand itself is changing.
“You may not necessarily hire people only for coding skills anymore,” Hemmigae explains. “You will increasingly hire people who understand business processes and industry context because the platforms themselves can increasingly assist with coding.”
Enterprises are approaching AI through three distinct lenses starting employee productivity, technology transformation to customer experience. Those that successfully combine all three are already beginning to see measurable gains.
“Some organisations have reported productivity improvements of 30% to 40%,” she says.
Bengaluru vs Hyderabad: The GCC geography
The growth of GCCs is reshaping India’s technology map. Bengaluru continues to dominate as the preferred destination for digital, product engineering and AI talent. Hyderabad, meanwhile, has emerged as a formidable challenger, backed by strong infrastructure, proactive government support and a rapidly maturing ecosystem.
According to Hemmigae, talent remains the single biggest factor influencing location decisions. “If you are looking for digital and AI talent, almost half of that talent is concentrated in Bengaluru,” she says. “You have startups, product companies, service providers, research institutions and educational institutions all operating in the same ecosystem.”
At the same time, Hyderabad’s infrastructure-led growth has made it increasingly attractive to global enterprises, while cities such as Pune, Gurugram, Navi Mumbai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam are emerging as viable alternatives.
The rise of these new destinations is being actively supported by state governments through GCC-specific policies, single-window clearances and infrastructure investments.
The era of ‘best sourcing’
Another major shift is taking place in the operating model itself. Historically, enterprises viewed GCCs and IT service providers as competing alternatives. According to Hemmigae, that distinction is rapidly disappearing.
ANSR describes the emerging model as “best sourcing”, an approach that combines GCCs, service providers and enterprise teams into a single integrated ecosystem.
“The future is not about choosing between a GCC and a service provider,” says Hemmigae. “It’s about determining what capabilities are core to the organisation and what can be supported by ecosystem partners.”
This model allows enterprises to retain strategic capabilities internally while leveraging external expertise for scale and efficiency.
ANSR’s bet on the next phase
Few companies have been as closely associated with the GCC movement as ANSR. Founded more than two decades ago by GCC pioneer Lalit Ahuja, the company has helped establish over 225 GCCs globally and hired approximately 2,00,000 professionals across those engagements.
The company was also among the first to introduce the GCC-as-a-Service model, enabling enterprises to establish centres without large upfront capital investments.
“We wanted to remove one of the biggest friction points for enterprises,” says Hemmigae. “Instead of making large capital commitments, organisations could consume GCC services in a more flexible operating model.”
Today, ANSR is expanding beyond India into locations such as Poland, the Philippines, Mexico and the Middle East, helping enterprises build global hub-and-spoke operating models.
The end of the beginning
For all the attention GCCs receive today, Hemmigae believes the industry is still in the early stages of its next transformation.
The future, she argues, belongs to AI-first GCCs, centres designed not around traditional operating structures, but around AI-native ways of working. “The AI-first GCC is going to be one of the most interesting developments we will see over the next few years,” she says.
If the first chapter of India’s GCC story was about talent and the second was about capability, the third appears set to be about leadership. As enterprises rethink their operating models for an AI-driven future, India’s GCCs are no longer just participating in the transformation, they are increasingly leading it.