India’s GCC talent landscape in 2025: What changed and what comes next in 2026

India’s global capability centres spent 2025 widening their remit and tightening their grip on enterprise-wide work, but the year also exposed constraints that will shape how the sector moves into 2026. Senior leaders across technology and healthcare describe an ecosystem that has matured into strategic ownership while contending with a shortage of specialised talent and rising expectations of accountability.

A Year of Expanded Ownership — and the Weight of Capability Gaps

For technology-heavy GCCs, the shift in mandate was explicit. “In 2025, India’s GCCs have moved decisively from execution to true ownership,” said Pankaj Sachdeva, Vice President, Data Science & Analytics and Managing Director, India at Pitney Bowes. He said Indian teams now “lead end-to-end products, platforms, and global capabilities, influencing strategy rather than simply supporting it,” arguing this pivot is enabled by “the depth of talent in India,” particularly in AI, engineering, cybersecurity and digital operations.

Sachdeva pointed to three talent shifts that, in his view, defined the year:

• a surge in AI-native and deep-tech roles;
• an expansion of leadership capacity;
• stronger cross-functional mobility.

These shifts, he said, have “firmly positioned India as the world’s most agile, future-ready talent hub for global capability centres.”

Innovation mandates expanded accordingly. Sachdeva said GCCs made a “decisive leap” because “the narrative finally shifted from savings to value creation.” Teams built proprietary AI platforms, engineering accelerators and analytics stacks “designed and owned out of India,” alongside product-centred working models such as cross-functional squads and rapid prototyping. Leadership maturity, he argued, completed the picture: “leaders empowered to define roadmaps, not just execute tasks.” The result, he said, was that GCCs “firmly stepped into their role as global innovation hubs, not cost centres.”

Yet the year exposed limits. Deep skills across machine learning, cloud, cybersecurity and platform engineering “continued to be scarce,” Sachdeva said, creating pressure across hiring, retention and upskilling. Leadership readiness may have improved, he argued, but “the real constraint lay in expanding niche technical depth at the speed required.”

AI’s integration deepened those pressures. “AI and automation have rapidly transformed from point solutions to the backbone of GCCs,” Sachdeva said, shifting work design and talent demand. Routine tasks are “increasingly automated,” he said, while organisations hire for “data engineering, model governance, platform orchestration, and product-centric thinking.” He said these models allow teams to deliver outcomes faster and with “far smaller, more empowered cross-functional groups.”

Healthcare GCCs Take a Parallel but Sector-Specific Path

Healthcare-focused GCCs reported similar structural change, but with different stakes. “In 2025, we witnessed continued growth and maturity across India’s healthcare GCC landscape driven by an enterprise-led, AI-first approach to improving the global health systems,” said Amit Vaish, Vice President, People Team at Optum India. The shift, he said, moved the sector from efficiency to “creating real health system value,” with innovation aimed at “enhances patient engagement, improves clinical outcomes, and makes healthcare more accessible and affordability.”

Vaish described a talent model built on capability and purpose. Healthcare GCC teams, he said, “are partners working to solve some of the most complex global healthcare challenges.” Optum’s India centre operates as “the healthcare Innovation hub for United Health Group,” supported by continuous reskilling, collaboration and embedding AI fluency into solutions.

He also pointed to three major talent shifts in 2025:

• the mainstreaming of product and data talent;
• India-based enterprise leadership roles with global responsibility;
• mobility and continuous learning as drivers of retention.

Wellbeing, mentorship and flexibility, he said, have become core expectations in a millennial- and Gen Z-heavy workforce.

Healthcare GCCs also moved closer to end-to-end ownership. Vaish said the transformation “marks a decisive shift from operational hubs to integrated, end-to-end value centers,” supported by cross-functional integration, frontline-led ideation and unified global teams that “transcend traditional boundaries.”

AI again played a central role. Its integration demanded “deep expertise in system intelligence, automation, and digital architecture,” he said, supported by agile, product-centric teams. Innovation ecosystems encouraged employees to act as intrapreneurs, while leader-backed cultural change ensured technology adoption was “purposeful.”

The 2026 Test: Can GCCs Deepen Their Bench Fast Enough?

Both leaders expect 2026 to intensify the focus on technical depth, leadership maturity and responsible AI governance. Sachdeva said GCCs will prioritise deep reskilling in data, AI, cybersecurity and cloud engineering, build structured pathways for mid-level talent, and strengthen mobility across engineering, operations and analytics. He underscored the importance of “responsible AI and data governance capabilities so that AI-first delivery can scale safely.”

Vaish outlined parallel priorities for healthcare GCCs: specialisation in healthcare technology; “inclusive leadership that harmonizes human and machine intelligence”; agile ecosystems that respond quickly to sector needs; and holistic wellbeing for a multigenerational workforce. Partnerships with academia, accelerators and startups, he said, will be essential for securing emerging skills.

Both leaders converge on one theme: 2026 will test whether India’s GCCs can consolidate the gains of 2025 while overcoming the talent shortages that could limit momentum. The sector enters the new year with broader ambition — and a deeper requirement for specialised capability.