New Delhi: India’s offshore technology ecosystem has crossed a defining milestone, with its global capability centres (GCCs) generating $98.4 billion in revenue in FY26, underscoring their transition from cost-arbitrage back offices to strategic engines of global enterprises. With 2,117 GCCs operating across 3,728 units and employing 2.36 million professionals, India has firmly established itself as the nerve centre for multinational corporations seeking innovation, scale and digital transformation.
The ecosystem has expanded 32% since FY2021, with as many as 506 companies from the Forbes Global 2000 now running operations from India. This rapid growth reflects not just volume expansion but a structural shift in how GCCs are positioned within global business strategies.
These insights come from the report titled GCC Value Orbit: From Delivery Engine to Enterprise Nerve Centre, released on Wednesday by Nasscom in collaboration with Zinnov at the Nasscom GCC Summit 2026. The report highlights how India’s GCC landscape is undergoing a fundamental reset, driven by AI, evolving leadership mandates, and a decisive move toward value creation.
At the heart of this transformation lies AI. Nearly half of all GCCs established since FY2021 were built with AI at their core. Today, over 1,200 GCCs have embedded AI and machine learning capabilities, supported by more than 250 Centres of Excellence and a workforce of 250,000 AI professionals. AI is no longer experimental; it is being deployed across products, internal operations, and customer-facing solutions, with the focus shifting toward governance and scalable economic value.
A GCC is a foreign-based, wholly-owned subsidiary of a multinational corporation designed to leverage local talent, lower costs, and drive innovation, transitioning from traditional back-office support to strategic nerve centres.
Nasscom President Rajesh Nambiar said, “India’s GCC ecosystem is undergoing a fundamental reset. The shift from scale to value is now well underway, with AI acting as the catalyst. GCCs are increasingly taking ownership of global products, platforms, and business outcomes, positioning India as a strategic nerve centre for enterprises worldwide. The next phase of growth will be defined by how effectively these centres can drive enterprise-wide transformation and deliver measurable impact.”
AI, Talent & Partnerships
The report indicates that India’s GCCs are rapidly advancing up the maturity curve, with nearly 50% already operating at a high maturity stage. Notably, 96% of GCCs established after FY2021 were launched with product or portfolio mandates, signalling a decisive break from traditional support roles. Leadership structures are also evolving, with 64% of site leaders now holding dual mandates that combine global functional ownership with site-level responsibilities, including cybersecurity and AI governance.
Workforce strategies are undergoing a parallel transformation. While hiring remains resilient, companies are prioritising reskilling, redeployment, and AI-led productivity gains over linear headcount growth. Demand for AI-centric skills has increased by 1.5 percentage points in just the past six months, highlighting the urgency of building future-ready talent pools.
Equally significant is the shift in collaboration models. GCCs are increasingly partnering with academia, startups, service providers, and government institutions to accelerate innovation cycles. Over 90% of leading GCCs are engaged with universities for talent development and research, while more than half are co-innovating with startups through technology pilots and open innovation frameworks.
“The India advantage today is unmistakable — one of the largest and fastest-growing pools of AI and digital talent in the world. That advantage is now translating into something far more structural. GCCs are increasingly moving beyond execution to take ownership of products, platforms, and AI-led transformation, and three quarters will operate at high maturity by 2030. The opportunity is to build on this by investing in frontier capabilities and deepening the ties between talent, academia, and industry. The centers that get this right will not simply benefit from India's rise. They will be the reason for it,” said Zinnov CEO Pari Natarajan.
Notably, the report suggests that nearly 75% of India’s GCCs could evolve into portfolio or transformation hubs within five years. Achieving this will require a sharper focus on high-complexity work resistant to AI disruption, stronger human-AI collaboration, outcome-based performance metrics, and deeper co-creation with partners. As global enterprises recalibrate their operating models, India’s GCC ecosystem is no longer just participating in the transformation, it’s shaping it.