Mumbai, Nov 18 (PTI) With a large number of global capability centres (GCCs) in India moving beyond AI pilots, the sector is expected to see an 11 per cent increase in jobs, taking the total workforce
count to 2.4 million by 2026 and 3.46 million by 2030, according to a report.
The GCC workforce is projected to reach 3.46 million by 2030, adding 1.3 million new job roles, global technology and digital talent solutions provider NLB Services report – Workforce 2.0 Reset – India’s GCCs Go AI-Native, said.
It has indicated an 11 per cent increase in number of jobs, expanding the workforce to 2.4 million by 2026.
“India is at a critical intersection in its GCC 4.0 journey, building a unique and unmatched synergy of scale, skill and talent. Today, GCCs are no longer just exploring AI – rather, many have or are moving towards deployment. While AI thrust in this sector was expected, this year has seen a stronger drive for implementation,” NLB Services CEO Sachin Alug said.
All of this has certainly brought new layers to the talent take-off that was predicted at the onset of the year, he said.
“GCC workforce projection by 2030, indicated earlier, is now set to see a 30 per cent surge, adding 1.3 million new jobs,” he added.
The Workforce 2.0 Reset – India’s GCCs Go AI-Native report is based on insights from 321 GCC leaders across 6 Indian cities and 10 sectors. The research spanned a four month mixed-method design during July-October 2025.
The report further revealed that as AI becomes mainstream, entirely new roles are emerging across GCCs, including Cybersecurity and AI Governance Architects (29 per cent), Prompt Engineers (26 per cent), GenAI Product Owners (22 per cent), and AI Policy and risk strategists (21 per cent), symbolising India’s shift from execution to accountability and innovation-led leadership.
Simultaneously, legacy roles such as those of L1 IT Support (75 per cent), Legacy Application Development (74 per cent), Manual QA (72 per cent), and On-Prem Infrastructure Management (67 per cent) are being phased out as GCCs modernise towards AI-native, product-oriented teams, added the report.
With AI deployment further maturing, India’s GCC map is undergoing a major geographic shift, with tier II and III gaining prominence, it stated.
GCCs are moving away from metro cities to smaller cities to capitalise on the proposition of 10-12 per cent lower attrition rates, 30-50 per cent lower office costs, and 20-35 per cent talent cost advantages, said the report.
“By 2030, nearly 39 per cent of the GCC workforce will operate from tier II and III cities, enabling our shift from metro-focused to a more distributed workforce model. While tier I cities will continue to serve as centres for leadership, governance, and R&D, emerging tier II and III hubs such as Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, and Bhubaneswar are rapidly becoming specialised delivery centres. The new synergy across tier II/III cities will create 0.715 million net new GCC jobs by 2030,” NLB Services SVP and APAC Head Varun Sachdeva added. PTI SM HVA
