Report

The state of AI hiring at India's GCCs

Where the global enterprise is building its AI in India, how fast it is growing, and what makes a GCC role different from a services one.

The growth story

India is where the global enterprise builds its AI

The GCC wave is not a forecast any more. It is the single largest concentration of enterprise AI hiring in the country.

2,117
GCCs in India, running 3,728 centres
2.36M
people employed across those centres
5.1lakh
GCC hires projected in 2026
64%
of new GCC roles need AI, data or automation skills
+38%
year-on-year growth in AI and data hiring
506
Forbes Global 2000 firms with an India centre

Where the hiring happens

Six cities hold 92% of India's GCCs. Tier-2 cities are the fastest-growing band from a small base.

  • Bengaluru30% +10%
  • Hyderabad15% +15%
  • Pune12% +11%
  • Mumbai11% +8%
  • Chennai9%
  • Delhi NCR8%
  • Share of GCC hiring, H1 2026
  • Tier-2 city — 15% combined, not per city
Share of GCC hiring across India, first half of 2026A map of India marking ten cities. Bengaluru leads with 30% of GCC hiring, then Hyderabad 15%, Pune 12%, Mumbai 11%, Chennai 9% and Delhi NCR 8%. Ahmedabad, Indore, Coimbatore and Kochi are marked as tier-2 cities, which together account for 15%.Bengaluru30% of hiringHyderabad15% of hiringPune12% of hiringMumbai11% of hiringChennai9% of hiringDelhi NCR8% of hiringAhmedabadtier 2Indoretier 2Coimbatoretier 2Kochitier 2Share of GCC hiring across India, first half of 2026A map of India marking ten cities. Bengaluru leads with 30% of GCC hiring, then Hyderabad 15%, Pune 12%, Mumbai 11%, Chennai 9% and Delhi NCR 8%. Ahmedabad, Indore, Coimbatore and Kochi are marked as tier-2 cities, which together account for 15%.643251
  1. Bengaluru30% +10%
  2. Hyderabad15% +15%
  3. Pune12% +11%
  4. Mumbai11% +8%
  5. Chennai9%
  6. Delhi NCR8%
  7. Tier 2 — Ahmedabad, Indore, Coimbatore, Kochi15% combined

Share of GCC hiring by city, H1 2026. Source: foundit Insights Tracker via Business Today. Map is illustrative and not to scale; boundary as depicted by the Survey of India.

Sources: Nasscom–Zinnov India GCC Landscape 2026; foundit Insights Tracker, H1 2026.

Why a GCC

A different kind of engineering job

Not an offshore delivery centre. A GCC is the global enterprise itself, operating from India — which changes what you own, what you build, and what you are paid.

01 — Ownership

Global ownership and end-to-end impact

Direct product ownership
Shift from short-term client delivery or vendor execution to owning the full lifecycle of enterprise products used by millions worldwide.
Core business integration
Work directly on high-priority strategic initiatives that sit at the centre of the global enterprise's core revenue and operating models.
A seat at the global table
Collaborate daily with global executives, product architects and functional leads, without intermediate vendor layers.

02 — Craft

Cutting-edge AI engineering

Enterprise-grade data and infrastructure
Build, fine-tune and deploy AI/ML models on petabyte-scale real-world datasets using top-tier enterprise cloud and GPU clusters.
Deep industry problems
Solve complex, high-stakes domain problems in healthcare AI, global supply chain optimisation, algorithmic trading and enterprise automation.
Production-grade AI, end to end
Experience the complete lifecycle — research and prototyping through MLOps, LLMOps, model monitoring and governance at scale.

03 — Rewards

Top-tier total rewards and compensation growth

Pay above IT services
GCCs pay about 15 to 22% more than IT services (approximate). Source: Zyoin, vendor data, not yet verified.
Rewards beyond base
Total rewards are structured globally: performance bonuses, long-term incentives and benefits set against the parent company's bands rather than a local services grid.
A ladder that keeps going
Progression is measured by the scope of what you own, so senior individual-contributor and global leadership tracks both stay open from India.