India’s Global Capability Centers are emerging as key testing hubs for agentic AI innovations.

India’s Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are becoming major testing hubs for agentic AI, thanks to big increases in investment, stronger innovation goals, and changes in how these centres operate.

According to the EY GCC Pulse Survey 2025,

• 58% of GCCs are investing in agentic AI

• 83% are expanding their generative AI programmes
  This makes India one of the fastest adopters of advanced AI among global enterprise hubs.

A big reason for this shift is talent.
GCCs are no longer seen as low-cost support centres. They now handle full global processes, product engineering, R&D, data/AI work, and innovation for their parent companies.

AI, cloud, and cybersecurity roles are growing 18–22% each year, and companies are paying 25–30% higher salaries for specialised AI skills. This has reduced attrition to 9–13%, helped by long-term innovation projects and better internal mobility.

GCCs are also moving from support functions to product engineering and platform development, with new centres like Vanguard’s Hyderabad hub focusing heavily on engineering and AI.

Across industries — BFSI, retail, tech, healthcare, and manufacturing — demand is rising for roles such as:

• MLOps engineers

• AI workflow designers

• LLM orchestrators

• AI product owners

• Governance specialists

New hybrid roles are emerging that combine engineering skills, domain knowledge, and experimentation. About 27% of future digital roles are expected to be filled through internal upskilling.

GCCs have also reached a new stage of automation maturity.
The first wave of fully autonomous, rule-based agentic execution is appearing in:

• supply chain

• finance close

• collections

• procurement

• HR onboarding

• customer service

For example, one pilot system now generates financial forecast reports overnight — a task that previously took days.

Team structures are changing as well.
Large execution teams are being replaced by leaner groups, including:

• “agent supervisors”

• “exception managers”

Some GCCs have already moved beyond pilots and are using agentic AI in live customer service and finance operations.

India’s role as a global innovation and prototyping hub continues to grow, although there is still a shortage of highly specialised talent like senior AI architects and agent developers.

Overall, India’s GCC ecosystem is rapidly becoming the world’s preferred location for building and scaling agentic AI systems. Through 2025, these centres are shifting from execution units to strategic innovation hubs, strengthening India’s position in the global AI landscape.