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A new NLB Services report shows that India's Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are rapidly shifting from small AI pilots to large-scale adoption, pushing the sector toward strong growth. Employment is expected to rise 11% next year, reaching nearly 2.4 million, and expand to 3.46 million by 2030. As GCCs enter the AI-native 4.0 stage, new roles such as AI governance architects, prompt engineers and GenAI product owners are emerging, while traditional IT support and legacy development roles decline. The report also highlights a geographic shift, with more work moving to tier II and III cities due to lower costs and attrition. By 2030, these locations may account for nearly 39% of the GCC workforce.
A detailed report from global technology and digital talent solutions provider NLB Services has indicated that India's global capability centres are experiencing a significant transformation as many organisations move beyond limited AI pilots into full-scale deployment. With this shift, the sector is projected to record an 11% rise in employment, taking the total workforce to nearly 2.4 million by the coming year and 3.46 million by the close of this decade. Advertisement
According to the Workforce 2.0 Reset - India's GCCs Go AI-Native report, India is advancing through what has been described as the GCC 4.0 stage, marked by a strong combination of scale, capability and talent depth. NLB Services CEO Sachin Alug stated that GCCs are no longer merely assessing the potential of AI but are increasingly implementing these technologies across business functions. He noted that the AI focus expected at the beginning of the year had intensified, adding new dimensions to the workforce demand originally anticipated.
Alug further explained that the projections shared earlier this year are now expected to be surpassed, with the sector set to witness an estimated 30% surge in the total workforce by 2030-adding 1.3 million new job roles. The research behind the report was conducted over a four-month period from July to October 2025, drawing from insights provided by 321 GCC leaders across six Indian cities and ten sectors.
The findings suggest a major shift in job composition as AI adoption becomes mainstream. New roles are emerging, including Cybersecurity and AI Governance Architects (29%), Prompt Engineers (26%), GenAI Product Owners (22%), and AI Policy and Risk Strategists (21%). These positions highlight India's progression from pure execution to greater accountability and innovation-led leadership within GCC structures. At the same time, traditional roles such as L1 IT Support (75%), Legacy Application Development (74%), Manual QA (72%), and On-Prem Infrastructure Management (67%) are being phased out as GCCs evolve towards more AI-native, product-centric teams.
A parallel transformation is taking place in location strategy. As AI deployment matures further, the GCC landscape is undergoing a notable geographic shift, with tier II and III cities gaining importance. The report shows that organisations are moving away from metro-focused models towards smaller cities to benefit from 10-12% lower attrition, 30-50% reduced office space costs, and 20-35% savings in talent-related expenses.
NLB Services SVP and APAC Head Varun Sachdeva observed that by 2030, nearly 39% of the GCC workforce is expected to operate from tier II and III locations. While tier I cities will maintain their position as hubs for leadership, governance and research functions, emerging centres such as Coimbatore, Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar are rapidly establishing themselves as specialised delivery hubs. He added that this multi-city expansion is projected to create about 0.715 million net new GCC jobs by the end of the decade.
India's GCC ecosystem is entering a period of accelerated evolution, driven by rapid AI adoption and broader workforce redistribution. The transition towards advanced AI-native roles shows that GCCs are prioritising long-term capability-building rather than short-term experimentation. At the same time, the growing prominence of tier II and III cities reflects an increasingly decentralised talent strategy, supported by cost advantages and widening skill availability. As global enterprises continue to strengthen their India-based operations, the country's position as a strategic innovation and technology hub is expected to deepen further over the coming years.
Source - PTI
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