GCCs in India ramp up GenAI and niche hiring as end-to-end ownership grows: EY report

India’s Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are moving rapidly from experimentation to large-scale adoption of AI, especially Agentic and Generative AI, according to the EY India GCC Pulse Survey 2025. A majority—58%—are already investing in Agentic AI, while another 29% plan to scale it up over the next year.

GCCs are applying GenAI where it counts: customer service (65%), finance (53%), operations (49%), and IT and cybersecurity (45%). Business intelligence usage has grown to 86% from 80% last year, while data strategy adoption has jumped to 67% from 51%.

EY’s report shows Indian GCCs are now critical players in global decision-making. Over half (52%) share responsibility for global decisions, while 26% are consulted formally. About 20% are close to fully managing certain functions from India. Strategic roles are also expanding—45% now drive global strategy, and 35% are helping build leadership pipelines.

“Our survey shows that this shift is well underway at GCCs in India,” said Manoj Marwah, Partner and GCC Sector Leader - Financial Services, EY India. “The combination of talent, cross-functional maturity and a rapidly advancing AI ecosystem gives global firms something they can’t easily build elsewhere.”

“We’re also seeing GCCs move from curiosity to commercialisation in their AI journey,” added Arindam Sen, Partner and GCC Sector Leader - Technology, Media and Entertainment and Telecommunications, EY India.

GCCs are now prioritising scaling data and tech, improving service models, and reducing costs (61%) while meeting talent needs (51%). Budgets reflect this focus, with 25% allocated to technology and transformation, and 23% to talent and workforce.

A notable 92% of GCCs aim to deliver value beyond cost savings, and 87% plan to manage end-to-end global business processes. While in-house operations still dominate at 84%, outsourcing has grown to 12%—up from 8% last year.

Talent strategies are evolving, with 71% focused on reskilling and 70% on tech-led growth. Niche hiring is rising (63%), and 81% of centres are training teams on GenAI. Deep domain expertise (66%), AI/ML (63%), and data engineering (54%) are key skill priorities, signalling a shift beyond traditional roles.

Attrition has dropped consistently—from 13% in 2023 to 11% in 2024, and now 9% in 2025.

However, cybersecurity remains a concern. Just 7% of GCCs have a fully embedded Centre of Excellence, although third-party data access monitoring has improved significantly—from 44% in 2024 to 60% this year.

On the regulatory front, transfer pricing remains the top challenge for 63% of respondents. Concerns around SEZ and STPI rules (22%), labour laws (20%), currency repatriation (17%), and double taxation (10%) have eased slightly. However, complexity in compliance and data privacy concerns have increased to 42%, up from 32% last year.