Synopsis
India is a global AI powerhouse, with users driving advanced applications and Claude.ai seeing its second-largest user base here. This surge is dramatically boosting productivity, with tasks now taking a fraction of the time. GCC revenues are soaring, but AI is reshaping hiring trends.“India happens to be the second largest user base for Claude.ai globally,” Ghose said, adding that Indian users also account for the highest share of technical and computational tasks within Claude. “What it really means is that people here want to deliver autonomy at a higher level than globally.”
She was speaking at the Nasscom global capability centre (GCC) summit in Mumbai on Wednesday.
She noted a sharp jump in productivity enabled by AI, noting that tasks that earlier took four hours are now being completed in about 15 minutes. “That’s about a 15x multiplier,” she said, noting how quickly adoption is scaling in the country.
Nasscom said at the conference that India’s GCC revenues have reached $98.4 billion in FY26, growing at a 9.9% annual rate over the last five years, as GCCs transform from cost-centres to revenue-centres.
India added 510 new GCCs during the period, taking the overall count to 2,177, according to a joint study by consulting firm Zinnov and the software sector industry body.
Headcount grew at 6.2% reaching 2.36 million, representing roughly half of India’s tech workforce. However, the rise of AI is beginning to temper hiring momentum, with many GCCs reassessing open roles, adopting selective fresher hiring, and even pausing automatic backfills. Labour arbitrage will no longer be a growth metric for GCCs going forward, Nasscom leaders said. AI-focussed skill sets have risen 1.5% as a share of open roles in the last six months. However, non-AI hiring has shrunk, the report said.
Geographically, India’s GCC expansion remains concentrated in Tier-1 cities with Bengaluru and Hyderabad attracting nearly two-thirds of new centres. Bengaluru continues to dominate with over 1,000 GCC units and more than one-third of the country’s installed GCC talent, while Hyderabad has emerged as the preferred destination for BFSI GCCs. Cities such as Coimbatore, Ahmedabad and Kochi are gaining traction as alternative hubs.
Companies headquartered in the Americas continue to dominate India’s GCC landscape, accounting for nearly two-thirds of new setups and roughly 63% of installed base. Sector wise, software and internet firms led the growth, followed by BFSI and industrial companies, while newer setups are emerging from heavy-asset industries such as automotive, chemicals and materials.
Private equity is also playing a growing role. Out of 500 PE-backed/acquired GCCs in India, 32% have formed in the last five years.
The nature of work within GCCs is also evolving rapidly. More than 90% of India’s GCCs are now multifunctional, though still anchored around a primary function such as engineering, IT or BPM (business process management).
