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From Execution to Innovation: How AI is Redefining the Strategic Mandate of India’s GCCs
From Execution to Innovation: How AI is Redefining the Strategic Mandate of India’s GCCs

May 22, 2025

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By Sandeep Dutta, Chief Practice Officer – Asia-Pacific & Middle East region, Fractal

Over the past year, Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India have undergone a profound evolution. No longer confined to their original mandate of operational efficiency, they are emerging as critical engines of enterprise-wide innovation and value creation. This transformation is being accelerated by the integration of artificial intelligence (AI)—a technology that is no longer peripheral, but increasingly core to business strategy and execution.

AI’s Inflection Point: Beyond Cost to Competitive Advantage

AI has already delivered significant productivity gains across core tasks such as software development, testing, data processing, and content generation. Industry reports from players like Google and Microsoft indicate that up to 30% of code is now AI-generated, a signal of both the maturity and business readiness of generative AI tools. For GCCs, this translates into the ability to do more with less—delivering greater output without linear increases in cost or manpower.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The true opportunity lies in harnessing AI not merely for efficiency, but for competitive differentiation. GCCs are now building intelligent solutions—AI-powered pricing engines, supply chain optimization platforms, intelligent document processing workflows—that directly impact the top and bottom lines. This evolution demands not just technical capability, but a shift in mind-set: from delivering on a mandate to defining it.

The Strategic Edge of India’s GCC Ecosystem

India is uniquely positioned at the confluence of talent, technology, and trust. With over 1,600 GCCs employing more than 1.9 million professionals, India is home to the world's most evolved capability centre ecosystem. These centres are no longer peripheral appendages; they are deeply embedded in the strategic fabric of their global enterprises.

Unlike traditional outsourced models, GCCs have full-stack ownership of business processes—ranging from insurance underwriting and claims management to retail demand forecasting and telecom network analytics. This gives them a rare trifecta: deep domain expertise, access to enterprise data, and the technical know-how to build end-to-end AI solutions.

What amplifies this capability is the surrounding ecosystem. India boasts one of the largest pools of AI and cloud professionals globally, rivalled only by Silicon Valley and China. The policy push from MeitY, the momentum from NASSCOM’s GCCX initiative, and the vibrant start-up ecosystem all converge to make India a natural home for AI-led enterprise transformation.

A Shift from Delivery to Strategic Leadership

Historically, GCCs excelled in execution—delivering on playbooks handed down by headquarters. Today, they are being called upon to write those playbooks. With end-to-end business functions co-located under one roof, GCCs can break down silos, accelerate cross-functional experimentation, and drive enterprise-wide adoption of AI solutions.

This new mandate requires GCCs to take ownership of problem statements, invest in design thinking, build agile innovation pods, and experiment with open innovation—partnering with start-ups and academia. The focus is shifting from "delivering efficiencies" to "delivering business outcomes," whether it’s optimizing time-to-market, enhancing customer experience, or improving margin realization.

The Window of Opportunity is narrow—and Transformational

The convergence of enterprise knowledge, AI fluency, and India’s talent advantage presents a time-sensitive opportunity. GCCs that act now can fundamentally reposition themselves—not as support centres, but as centres of strategic gravity. The organizations that win in the AI age will be those that make better decisions faster, and at scale. GCCs can and must lead this transformation.

It’s no longer a question of whether AI will reshape global business, it’s already doing so. The real question is whether GCCs will lead that change.

 


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