Why Gen AI is a top priority for GCCs in India

India’s Global Capability Centers (GCCs) are being transformed at a radical pace—from cost centers to global sources of innovation. As of 2024, India is home to more than 1,580+ GCCs, employing 1.66 million individuals and directly adding $46 billion to the country’s economy. In light of the competition to be digitally transformed, Generative AI (Gen AI) has become a high strategic priority for such centers.

Market Landscape

Metric	Value (India)
No. of GCCs (2024)	1,580+
GCC workforce	1.66 million
Gen AI adoption in some form	70%
GCCs piloting Gen AI use cases	37%
GCCs upskilling workforce in Gen AI	78%

Gen AI Prioritization

Metric	India GCCs (2024)
GCCs prioritizing Gen AI in strategy	70%
GCCs already piloting Gen AI use cases	37%
GCCs investing in workforce upskilling for Gen AI	78%
Use cases focused on customer/ops efficiency	69%
Enterprises with dedicated Gen AI COEs	22%

1. Strategic Shift from Support to Innovation

India’s GCCs are no longer just backend support units—they’re at the forefront of R&D, product engineering, and AI innovation.

• 78% of GCCs have already initiated their own Gen AI skilling programs.
• Companies like PepsiCo, Bosch, and JPMorgan are integrating Gen AI into R&D processes in their India centers.
• Includes domains such as drug discovery, digital twins, product design and even AI-generated software testing.

Use Case:

A pharma GCC in Hyderabad reduced molecule simulation time by 40% using Gen AI, fast-tracking drug R&D cycles.

2. Automation of Repetitive and Cognitive Tasks

India’s GCCs are using Gen AI to automate:

Task Type	Time Saved with Gen AI
Report generation	85%
Code reviews	60%
Market research	70%
Legal documentation	55%

This has freed up thousands of engineering hours annually and allowed teams to focus on high-value tasks.

3. Talent Advantage and AI Upskilling

India has a tech talent goldmine. With 500K+ AI professionals, and the fastest-growing STEM graduate base, GCCs are investing in Gen AI training.

Gen AI Upskilling Stats (2024)

Metric	Value
GCCs with AI training labs	62%
Professionals upskilled	420,000+
Preferred upskilling tool	OpenAI, Hugging Face

Companies are also creating internal GPTs to boost productivity across HR, legal, and finance departments.

Leading Gen AI Use Cases in India GCCs

Function	Use Case	Impact
Customer Support	Conversational bots, emotion analysis	+30% CSAT, –40% TAT
Operations	Workflow automation	+28% productivity
Engineering	Code generation, bug fixing	2x development speed
HR & L&D	Resume parsing, adaptive learning	–60% time-to-hire, +22% retention
Finance	Forecasting, anomaly detection	+35% accuracy in cashflow mgmt

4. Driving Cost Efficiency and Innovation Simultaneously

Unlike previous technologies, Gen AI provides both cost reduction and top-line growth:

Benefit	Impact (Average)
Operational cost savings	20–35%
Time-to-market improvement	30–50%
FTE productivity gain	40–70%

A major retail GCC in Bengaluru reported $3.5M in annual savings by integrating Gen AI into their 

5.  Enhancing Cybersecurity and Governance

Cybersecurity is a growing concern, especially with more remote operations and sensitive IP data flow.

• Gen AI is now being embedded in Security Operation Centers (SOCs) for:
  • Threat prediction
  • Real-time anomaly detection
  • AI-based compliance checks

EY reported that 47% of GCCs use Gen AI in some form of security automation.

 

6. Global Mandate, Local Execution

Global headquarters are increasingly giving India-based GCCs the mandate to drive Gen AI strategy.

• 52% of all global Gen AI pilots are being executed from Indian GCCs .
• India is now preferred as a location for setting up Gen AI Centers of Excellence (CoEs).

 Example:

Microsoft’s Azure AI innovation lab in Bengaluru supports product enhancements across North America and Europe.

7.  Data Abundance = AI Playground

India’s GCCs process and store a massive amount of datasets across functions which is ideal for training and fine tuning the Gen AI models.

• Availability of multilingual data
• Vast customer behavior logs
• Large volumes of engineering documentation

This makes Indian GCCs prime grounds for deploying Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), LLM fine-tuning, and industry-specific Gen AI tools.

The Road Ahead: From Hype to Scale

While 70% of GCCs are exploring Gen AI, only 15% have scaled it meaningfully. Challenges include:

• Data fragmentation
• Cloud maturity
• Regulatory ambiguities

Strategic Levers for GCCs:

• Build AI Governance Boards
• Invest in ethical AI frameworks
• Strengthen cross-functional AI CoEs
• Focus on explainability and transparency

Conclusion

India’s GCCs are not just Gen AI ready, they are Gen AI-leading. With deep talent, high data access, and global mandates, Gen AI is rightly the #1 strategic priority for innovation-driven GCCs in 2024 and beyond.