The Reinvention of the GCC: Why India Is Shaping Global Enterprise Transformation

News

1. Perplexity Unveils AI System Built to Run Entire Workflows

2. India IT Revenue to Grow 6.1% to $315 Billion in FY26, Hiring to Remain Flat

3. Goyal's LAT Aerospace Enters Defense Robotics

4. Anthropic CEO Says India Central to Enterprise AI Strategy

5. WhatsApp Tells Top Court It Will Comply With CCI Directive on Data Sharing

6. LTIMindtree Wins $100 Million MedTech Deal Amid Push for Large Contracts

For decades, India’s role in the global technology economy was shaped by scale and cost. Multinational companies sought talent here, but not ideas. Work was done in India; decisions were made elsewhere.

That equation is now changing.

Global capability centers (GCCs) in India across multiple sectors are moving from peripheral support roles to strategic centers of innovation. They are now driving product development, leading platform ownership, and orchestrating enterprise-wide digital transformations—demonstrating how India is redefining its global technology role.

“The shift is from doing work to being entrusted with driving innovation and strategic execution,” says Raghu Pareddy, Founder and CEO of Wissen Technology. 

This transformation is visible in how global enterprises structure their India operations, the capabilities they build, and the new expectations from  GCCs. 

Insights from leaders across industries, including Arvind Chittora, Managing Director of the Sonoco India Performance Hub, and Pawan Choudhary, CTO of Zinnia India, reinforce the point: India’s GCCs are defined by capability, accountability, and value creation, not just cost—the transformation of India’s GCCs centers on their ability to lead and innovate. 

When Does a Captive Become a GCC?

The term “GCC” is often used loosely, covering everything from small  IT teams to large offshore delivery centers, but leaders insist the title must be earned.

“A center becomes a true GCC when it moves beyond being an operational extension and starts shaping how the enterprise runs,” says Chittora. “The shift happens when the team influences decisions, not just executes them.”

Pareddy echoes this view, arguing that a GCC is defined not by its existence, but by its evolution. “A true GCC delivers end-to-end engineering and digital outcomes, owns platforms and products, and carries global accountability for enterprise technology strategy,” he says.

At Zinnia, which provides technology for the life and annuities insurance industry, the line is sharper. “A captive center earns the GCC label when it is trusted with ownership,” says Choudhary. “That includes architectural decisions, governance, and in many cases, full P&L accountability.”

In other words, the moment a global organization is willing to bet on its India center, not just for execution, but for outcomes, the center crosses the threshold from captive to GCC.

Ownership, Mandate, or Value Creation?

If the modern GCCs are defined by one principle, it is value creation. Ownership and mandate enable this, but the shift from task execution to innovation and impact is now the main differentiator.

“In the Indian context, value creation is the ultimate differentiator. The ecosystem has matured beyond execution-only roles. Today, GCCs are driving core engineering, analytics, automation, and product ownership for global enterprises,” says Pareddy.

Choudhary agrees. “Ownership enables control, and mandate defines responsibility, but value creation is what truly defines a GCC,” he says. Many Indian GCCs are now measured on metrics that would have been unthinkable a decade ago: innovation velocity, revenue influence, customer impact, and speed to market.

This shift reflects a broader reality: India now offers a unique combination of deep digital talent, domain expertise, and an innovation culture that naturally pushes centres up the value chain. GCCs that succeed treat their initial mandate as a starting point and systematically expand scope by demonstrating enterprise-wide impact.

The End of the Old Offshore Model

To understand how profound this shift is, it helps to look backward.

A decade ago, India’s offshore model was largely task-based. Work was broken into discrete units, governed by SLAs, and executed through service providers. Cost reduction was the primary driver, and success was measured in utilization rates and delivery volumes.

“That model was built around the following processes,” says Chittora. “Today’s GCCs are built around leading transformation.”

Modern GCCs look fundamentally different. They own platforms rather than projects. They integrate AI, cloud, data engineering, and cybersecurity into core business value streams. They influence global digital roadmaps rather than simply deliver against them.

Chittora adds, “The difference is profound. The shift is from cost arbitrage to capability arbitrage.”

According to a recent Nasscom report, the evolution toward “GCC 4.0” marks a structural shift from labour-intensive delivery engines to AI-native intelligence hubs. The traditional GCC resembled an iceberg, with a small, visible layer of strategic engagement supported by a much larger base of transactional work. In contrast, the AI-powered GCC operates more like a distributed neural network. 

At its foundation, automation and AI agents now handle the bulk of routine tasks with greater speed and precision. Above that sits a cognitive layer, where domain experts work alongside AI co-pilots to manage exceptions, redesign processes, and drive strategic insights. At the top is the innovation layer, where applied AI teams collaborate directly with business units to build AI-first products, services, and new business models. 

Crucially, value is no longer measured by headcount or inputs, but by outputs: intellectual property created, predictive models deployed, revenue influenced, and innovation velocity achieved.

Pareddy describes today’s leading GCCs as strategic execution partners. “They bring together strategy, R&D, DevOps, and continuous improvement under one roof,” he says. “This is not break-fix IT. This is enterprise transformation.”

For Zinnia, this proximity to business is non-negotiable. “Our India teams operate much closer to customers and business leaders,” says Choudhary. “They participate in product strategy, architecture decisions, and roadmap planning. That fundamentally changes the centre’s role.”

Hiring for Capabilities That Don’t Yet Exist

The clearest sign of the GCC transformation lies in its hiring practice. India’s GCCs now recruit for capabilities the wider organisation may not yet fully envision, rather than just predefined roles.

Pareddy says, “Today’s GCC hiring goes beyond backfilling. We’re seeing explosive growth in AI, data science, cloud engineering, cybersecurity, and advanced analytics, often creating capability clusters that didn’t previously exist.”

This forward-looking approach reflects a strategic bet: India can be the place where new enterprise capabilities are incubated at scale. Choudhary notes that leading GCCs are investing in talent ahead of formal business demand, positioning themselves as innovation partners rather than downstream delivery centres.

“Increasingly, India is where organizations build the skills they will need tomorrow,” says Chittora. “In many cases, the India hub becomes the first place where these capabilities come together.”

Smitha Hemmigae, Managing Director, ANSR, says, “Increasingly, GCCs in India are being used to build capabilities that organisations do not yet have at scale. What began as a way to access scarce global talent has evolved into deliberately creating new capability blocks across areas such as AI engineering, data platforms, cloud-native architecture, cybersecurity, and product management.”

She added that in many cases, these capabilities are first established in India and then scaled across the global organisation, reflecting a broader shift in how companies view India, not just as a delivery location, but as a strategic talent and capability engine helping enterprises reinvent themselves.”

The implications for talent are significant. Engineers are no longer hired just for current relevance, but for adaptability, learning velocity, and cross-domain thinking. GCCs are becoming magnets for professionals who want to work on frontier technologies with real-world impact.

Smaller, Smarter, More Specialised

As capabilities deepen, size is becoming less important. The future GCC, according to all three leaders, will be defined not by headcount but by impact. While scale will continue to matter for core operations, competitive advantage will increasingly come from specialized, high-density talent.

“We are already seeing the rise of smaller, highly autonomous teams focused on niche areas like AI engineering, platform modernization, and data science,” says Choudhary. 

“As GCCs become increasingly size-agnostic, their future will be defined less by sheer scale and more by strategic focus. Many next-generation GCCs will be smaller but highly specialised, built around deep expertise in areas such as AI, cloud platforms, cybersecurity, and digital product engineering, and measured by the impact they create rather than headcount,” says Hemmigae. 

While large GCCs will continue to exist where enterprises need broad, multi-functional capabilities, even there, the real value will increasingly come from specialised teams within the larger organisation.

These teams are designed for speed, shorter innovation cycles, faster experimentation, and tighter alignment with business outcomes.

Pareddy points to the emergence of “nano-GCCs” and specialised centres of excellence. “A center with 300 deeply skilled experts can create more value than a 3,000-person center built on volume,” Chittora adds.

As automation and AI take over routine work, this shift seems inevitable. Future GCCs will be precision instruments, not blunt tools.

Legacy GCCs vs Next-Gen GCCs

In five years, legacy GCCs will focus on stability, efficiency, and cost optimization, with limited influence on global strategy and growth driven by headcount.

Next-gen GCCs will own global platforms and products, embed AI, cloud, and data excellence as core, shape enterprise digital strategy, and generate intellectual property.

Chittora says, “The next-gen GCC won’t just support the business, it will shape it.”

Choudhary adds that talent models will also diverge. Next-gen centers will adopt internal talent marketplaces, global mobility, and continuous upskilling to remain agile. Those that fail to evolve risk losing top talent to more future-oriented centers.

Why India, Why Now

India’s rise as a GCC powerhouse is not accidental. It is the result of decades of talent development, increasing domain sophistication, and a growing confidence among global enterprises to decentralize decision-making.

From Sonoco’s India Performance Hub in Hyderabad, designed as a strategic innovation and digital transformation center, to Zinnia’s India-led ownership of critical insurance platforms, the message is consistent: India is no longer just executing the future. It is helping define it.