Navigating the skills imperative for India’s GCCs in the AI era
“Navigating the Skills Imperative for India’s GCCs in the AI Era” examines the evolving role of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India and the skills required to sustain their transition from operational support centres to hubs of innovation, product development, advanced technology and enterprise leadership. Based on a survey of 200 senior GCC executives across eight industries, the report assesses emerging talent requirements, capability gaps and the ecosystem-level actions needed to prepare India’s workforce for an AI-driven future.
The findings indicate that while India has a strong talent base and continued global confidence in its GCC ecosystem, rapid advances in AI are creating significant new skill requirements. The future workforce will increasingly need composite capabilities combining domain expertise, digital fluency, analytical and problem-solving skills with AI/ML engineering, GenAI, advanced data engineering and cybersecurity.
The report emphasises that addressing these gaps will require continuous upskilling, industry-aligned talent development and stronger collaboration between industry, government, academia, technology platforms and skilling providers. By building future-ready capabilities at scale, India can strengthen its position as a global hub for innovation and convert its talent advantage into sustained enterprise value and long-term competitiveness.
Key Takeaways
- AI is redefining talent requirements: Nearly 46% of the GCC workforce is expected to require significant upskilling or reskilling over the next three years, making continuous capability development critical.
- Composite skills will drive future competitiveness: GCCs increasingly require a combination of AI and advanced technology capabilities with domain expertise, digital fluency, analytical reasoning, communication and stakeholder management.
- Critical skill gaps are concentrated in frontier technologies: Domain-specific AI, AI/ML engineering, GenAI and LLM, advanced data engineering and cybersecurity emerge among the most critical capability areas.
- Leadership readiness needs urgent attention: Average AI literacy among senior GCC leaders is only 27%, highlighting the need for stronger AI-focused leadership development.
- Industry-aligned skilling is essential: Industry-ready certifications, AI capability infrastructure, leadership development, apprenticeships and sector-specific skilling are identified as high-impact interventions.
- Collaboration will determine outcomes: Stronger alignment among industry, government, academia and the skilling ecosystem will be critical to building an AI-native, innovation-led and globally competitive workforce.