India’s global capability centres are transitioning from mere cost-efficient support units to strategic hubs focusing on product development, governance, and enterprise innovation, driven by AI and disruptive technology shifts in 2026.
India’s global capability centres are moving well beyond their original role as low-cost offshore support arms, with artificial intelligence now reshaping them into hubs for product development, governance and enterprise innovation. The shift is especially visible in 2026, as companies increasingly treat India not as a back-office destination but as a place to build core intellectual property and own critical technology functions.
The scale of the market underscores how quickly the model has changed. The New Indian Express reported in May that India had 2,117 GCCs across 3,728 units, employing about 2.36 million people, while more than 1,200 centres had added AI and machine learning capabilities. Ellvero’s 2026 playbook, meanwhile, said India hosts more than 1,800 GCCs with roughly 1.9 million workers, illustrating how estimates vary but still point to rapid expansion.
What matters more than the headline numbers is the mandate. Companies are no longer setting up these centres simply to do the same work more cheaply. According to industry reporting and conference presentations around the NASSCOM GCC Summit 2026, the new model is based on “capability arbitrage”: giving India teams ownership of AI labs, product engineering, cybersecurity and data platforms from day one, rather than making them execution-only units. Capgemini said the summit focused on turning GCCs into digital innovation and intelligent automation hubs, with AI embedded into daily operations rather than kept at pilot stage.
That shift is also changing where work is being done inside India. Bengaluru remains a centre for advanced AI research, product ownership and security work, while Hyderabad is increasingly associated with enterprise platforms, cloud transformation and large-scale digital delivery. Conferences in Hyderabad this month described the city as a rising base for architecture modernisation, analytics and platform transformation, reflecting a broader spread of capability beyond the traditional technology corridors.
The result is a different relationship between global headquarters and India teams. IBM’s new infrastructure innovation centre in Bengaluru is one example of the trend, with the company saying the site is intended to support co-creation with clients, systems partners and GCCs. More broadly, companies are now using India to build AI systems, develop proprietary tools and support strategic decisions, not just process transactions. That leaves the old cost-centre model looking increasingly outdated.
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