"Today’s tech talent seeks purpose and impact. The GCCs that lead are those reimagining careers through empowerment, growth, and global opportunity."
1. Considering the rapid evolution of technology and business needs, what are the most significant shifts you've observed in the mandate and strategic importance of GCCs in India over the past few years?
Over the last five years, we’ve seen India’s GCC ecosystem evolve in both scale and strategic relevance. As highlighted in the recent NASSCOM-Zinnov “India GCC Landscape Report - The 5-Year Journey,” the number of GCCs has grown to over 1,700, with nearly 3,000 centres employing close to 2 million professionals. That’s not just growth in numbers - it’s a clear signal of a shift in mandate. GCCs in India are no longer just operational hubs - they’re becoming centres of innovation, transformation, and leadership. To summarize it all, we are seeing a shift from people arbitrage to AI driven tech arbitrage, and India offers a robust ecosystem for global centres to tap talent and drive transformation.
This shift is particularly pronounced in AdTech and MarTech, where the demand for agility, real-time decisioning, and privacy-first design is incredibly high. Indian GCCs are leading the way - delivering customer-centric experience, enhancing personalization, and embedding intelligence into every layer of the stack.
At Epsilon, our India teams are a great example of this evolution in action. We're not just supporting global initiatives - we’re co-creating them. Whether it's delivering AI enabled efficiencies or developing scalable personalization frameworks, the India centre is playing a critical role. What energizes me the most is how seamlessly our teams here are working with global product, data, and engineering teams as ‘One Epsilon’- truly influencing the roadmap, not just executing it.
2. In today's competitive talent market in India, what are the key challenges and innovative strategies that GCCs are employing to attract, develop, and retain high-quality tech talent?
The talent landscape in India has become incredibly dynamic - driven by the rise of digital-native roles, evolving career expectations, and a growing demand for purposeful work. GCCs are expected to deliver more with less and so there is shift from BAU (Business As Usual) delivery to innovation. The challenge isn’t just about hiring top talent - it’s about engaging them in meaningful, high-impact work from the outset.
Professionals today are looking for more than compensation - they want autonomy, global exposure, and clear paths for growth. Leading GCCs are responding by reimagining the employee experience across the board. That starts with strong talent branding, immersive onboarding, and clear opportunities for global collaboration and ownership.
At Epsilon, we’ve embraced a people-first approach that puts learning, growth, and mobility at the center. Our shift to AI-driven, personalized learning journeys - delivered through platforms like Marcel - helps employees upskill with intention, not just information. We’ve also doubled down on internal mobility, encouraging talent to explore new roles and career paths within the company. It’s not only helped retain top performers but created a culture of continuous evolution.
Ultimately, it’s about creating an environment where people feel empowered to learn, grow, and contribute to something bigger - while being recognized and supported along the way. That’s what sets today’s successful GCCs apart.
3. How are GCCs in India increasingly contributing to global innovation and product development for their parent organizations, moving beyond traditional operational roles? Can you share some examples or trends you've seen?
The role of GCCs in India has shifted dramatically - from being primarily execution arms to becoming integral drivers of global innovation, especially in high-velocity industries like AdTech and MarTech. What’s changed is not just the type of work being done, but the ownership and influence these centres now command across the product lifecycle.
We're seeing India-based teams increasingly contributing in areas like data engineering, customer identity, AI-driven personalization, and privacy-first design - areas that are critical to shaping the future of digital marketing. GCCs are no longer waiting for direction from headquarters - they’re co-creating roadmaps, owning outcomes, and delivering at scale.
A few key trends stand out.
- First, there's a stronger integration between product, engineering, and data science teams across geographies, enabled by agile, global squads. This collaborative model is unlocking faster innovation cycles and truly borderless thinking.
- Second, the rise of domain specialization within GCCs - whether it’s loyalty or identity resolution - is allowing teams to build deep expertise and drive differentiated value.
- Another notable shift is the emergence of tech incubation hubs within GCCs - spaces where teams experiment with emerging technologies, pilot new product ideas, and validate them quickly before scaling. These innovation pods are helping global organizations stay ahead of the curve while tapping into the diverse talent pool India offers.
It’s this evolution - from support to strategy, from execution to innovation - that’s making GCCs in India a true force multiplier for global enterprises. And the pace of this transformation is only accelerating.
At Epsilon, India is leading mission-critical components of our product suite. With a decade of presence and co-location of all the core functions at Epsilon India, it offers us an ecosystem advantage to quickly build advanced tech capabilities (e.g. multi-agentic AI) and achieve desired outcomes in optimal manner. We are seeing SDLC (software development lifecycle) acceleration through the usage of best in industry tools, building more self-service capabilities for operational efficiency, optimizing delivery quality and customer migration timelines through AI enabled automation and enabling more personalized experience (e.g. campaign) in our core platforms/products. We are all excited about the future and to be part of this transformation journey.
4. With the growing emphasis on data privacy, security, and compliance, what are the critical considerations and best practices that GCCs in India are implementing to navigate the complex regulatory landscape?
Privacy, security, and compliance have become core to how products are designed and delivered - especially in industries like AdTech and MarTech, where trust and transparency are non-negotiable. GCCs in India are stepping up in a big way to help global organizations navigate this increasingly complex landscape.
We’re seeing a strong focus on embedding privacy by design across the development lifecycle, implementing robust consent management frameworks, and adopting zero-trust security architectures. Many centers have also stood up dedicated teams that bring together legal, data governance, and engineering functions to stay ahead of regulatory shifts - from GDPR and CCPA to India’s evolving DPDP framework.
What’s also encouraging is the cultural shift. It’s no longer just about meeting compliance checkboxes - it’s about building consumer trust into the DNA of every product and experience. That mindset shift is what’s helping India-based GCCs deliver not just compliant solutions, but truly resilient and future-ready platforms.
5. Looking towards the future, what do you foresee as the next major transformations/opportunities for GCCs in India, and what strategic investments or capabilities do you believe will be crucial for their continued success and growth?
The future of GCCs in India is incredibly exciting - and it's going to be defined by three key shifts: convergence of tech and domain, intelligent automation at scale, and the rise of globally distributed product leadership.
For Epsilon India, we’re already investing in these areas. We’ve launched an internal charter focused on Automation Throughout - which means reimagining how every workflow, process, or platform can benefit from intelligent automation. We're also partnering with best-in-class technology providers and working on embedding AI co-pilots and agents into our delivery pipelines to accelerate productivity and innovation.
Our teams are increasingly taking end-to-end ownership of modules and features - not just building but influencing what gets built and why. That shift - from being execution partners to strategic co-creators - is what will define the next decade of GCC evolution.
And of course, culture will be the glue. Our internal mantra - Act with urgency, embrace change as the new normal - is helping us stay ahead in a world that’s moving faster than ever.
