India's Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are rapidly emerging as crucial testing grounds for agentic AI, fueled by increased investment, broader innovation mandates, and evolving operational models. These centers are shifting from being cost-efficient back offices to becoming strategic hubs for AI and digital innovation for global enterprises.
A recent EY India GCC Pulse Survey 2025 indicates that 58% of GCCs in India are actively investing in agentic AI, with an additional 29% planning to scale up their initiatives within the next year. This adoption rate is among the fastest across global enterprise hubs. Furthermore, 83% of GCCs are expanding their generative AI (GenAI) programs.
This shift is significantly talent-driven. GCCs are increasingly viewed not just as cost arbitrage locations but as centers taking end-to-end ownership of global processes, product engineering, R&D, data/AI initiatives, and innovation. The demand for AI talent has surged, with a 5–7% rise in hiring between July and September 2025, driven by the need for GenAI and data science expertise. Consequently, GCCs are willing to pay a premium for specialized talent, with wages 25-30% higher than the tech sector average for niche skills. This has led to lower attrition rates, currently between 9-13%.
GCCs are strategically evolving from support or cost-efficiency hubs to centers for product engineering, AI builds, platform development, and broader innovation. New R&D-driven GCCs, such as Vanguard's Hyderabad center focusing on engineering and AI, exemplify this move towards capability-led strategies.
Agentic AI is being deployed in live workflows, especially in customer service management and finance operations. EY India's GCC Pulse Survey 2025 highlights that GCCs are applying GenAI to enhance customer service (65%), finance (53%), operations (49%), and IT and cybersecurity (45%). Business intelligence adoption has increased to 86%, and the formalization of data strategies has risen to 67%.
Many GCCs are creating dedicated innovation teams and incubation programs to generate, test, and globalize ideas from India. Over half of the India-based centers now share accountability for global decisions, while another 26% are formally consulted. Approximately 20% are moving towards full ownership of select global functions. Critical responsibilities such as global strategy leadership (45%) and leadership pipeline development (35%) are increasingly driven from India.
Examples of AI implementation include a US bank with a GCC in Hyderabad developing a fraud detection system using graph-based machine learning, which reduced transaction fraud by 25% within six months. Also, a European e-commerce player used their Bangalore GCC to build a recommendation engine that increased average order value by 18%. GCCs have also contributed to diagnostic AI tools capable of reading X-rays and MRIs with over 90% accuracy.
This evolution marks a decisive shift up the technology value chain for India, moving from service delivery to intellectual property creation and leadership in global tech transformation. Industry estimates suggest that India's GCC market could reach $99–105 billion by 2030, employing over 2.4 million professionals.
