India’s global capability centres, now numbering close to 1,700, are playing a pivotal role in reshaping how businesses operate in the age of artificial intelligence. Once established mainly as offshore support hubs, these centres are now driving core innovation, often working on high-impact projects for their parent companies or collaborating with research and development hubs across North America, Europe and Asia.
“The GCC of today is no longer an extended workbench. It is also a reinvention engine or something like an extension of HQ2 which is very deeply aligned with the business,” says Ujjwal Jyoti, MD and GCC sales lead at a global consulting firm. This evolution marks a major shift in how multinational companies view their Indian operations, moving from back-office functions to critical innovation hubs that directly influence growth and competitiveness.
The financial services sector highlights this transformation clearly. Amit Sakhuja, MD for commercial and institutional technology at a global bank, points out that the company’s Indian operations have evolved far beyond traditional support. The bank has implemented over 100 AI use cases, with its chatbot Cora Plus handling 11 million customer conversations last year, more than half resolved without human intervention. AI-powered tools like Copilot are also being used by all 60,000 employees globally to strengthen fraud detection and efficiency.
The technology industry has embraced this reinvention even more strongly. Pankaj Jain, centre head at Microsoft IDC Noida, says the Indian centre now operates in complete parity with global headquarters. Teams in Noida have developed AI features in Word, Excel and PowerPoint that millions worldwide use daily, including automated presentation creation. Local insights are also shaping global strategies. Jain recalls research showing how Indian consumers prioritise mobile devices over laptops, an insight that influenced Microsoft’s global product development.
The Australian banking sector provides another example of India’s GCC advantage. Vikas Malik, technology executive at NAB Innovation Centre India, explains how diverse talent from banking, fintech and product companies helps address global challenges. “If you use the diversity that we have, that can do the magic,” he says, adding that such perspectives are particularly valuable for designing solutions for Australia’s multicultural population.
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