GCCs to eclipse IT services in tech hiring as AI shifts India’s job market
Global capability centres (GCCs) in India are set to overtake traditional IT service providers as the main driver of technology hiring and digital transformation, as they move from back-office work to high-impact artificial intelligence (AI) and product-led roles. Industry estimates indicate that while overall tech headcount will stagnate at around 5.8 million in FY26, GCCs could add 130,000–150,000 jobs on a net basis, compared with just up to 35,000 net additions by large IT services firms such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro, underscoring a widening growth gap.
UnearthInsight and Xpheno data show that GCC hiring is growing nearly four times faster than that of IT services, with GCCs estimated to have hired about 140,000 people in FY25, up from around 60,000 in FY24, and projections of as many as 180,000 new roles in FY26 as roughly 100 new centres open in India. Nasscom estimates there are already close to 1,800 GCCs in hubs such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune, spanning sectors including banking and financial services, retail, health care, aerospace and oil and gas, and increasingly anchoring global AI, cloud and cybersecurity mandates from India.
In contrast, the legacy IT services industry is grappling with macroeconomic uncertainty, slower decision cycles for large deals above 75 million dollars, and aggressive automation, which together have sharply reduced fresher hiring and shifted employer focus to productivity and margin protection. GCCs, by comparison, are stepping up recruitment of highly skilled engineers, data scientists and AI specialists as global corporations push more “high-table” strategic work into their Indian centres, making the ability to scale beyond pilot AI projects and rapidly reskill talent a key determinant of survival in the new tech-job landscape.
CT Bureau
