Nearly 44% of India's Global Capability Centres (GCCs) have moved beyond traditional service delivery to take greater responsibility for technology platforms, products, artificial intelligence adoption and business outcomes, according to a report by TeamLease Digital.
The findings indicate a shift in the role of India-based GCCs, with multinational companies increasingly assigning them responsibilities involving AI development, innovation and enterprise transformation.
The report's salary analysis covers 37,000 technology and digital roles, examining how demand for specialised skills is influencing compensation across the sector.
India currently has 2,117 active GCCs employing approximately 2.36 million professionals and generating $98.4 billion in annual revenue, according to the report.
AI adoption is becoming an important component of this expansion. The findings show that 83% of GCCs are scaling generative AI initiatives, while 70% are adopting hybrid AI models and 58% are investing in agentic AI technologies.
India also has more than 250,000 AI and machine learning professionals and over 1,200 AI-enabled GCCs, reflecting the growing concentration of specialised technology capabilities within the country.
Neeti Sharma, CEO, TeamLease Digital, said, "The GCC story in India is no longer about where work gets done."
She added that the sector's next phase would depend on governance, decision-making and the ability to translate AI investments into business outcomes rather than workforce expansion alone.
The report also identifies a widening compensation gap between professionals developing AI systems and those performing supporting technology functions.
Salary increments across GCCs are estimated at 10.4% in 2026, compared with the broader India Inc average of 9.1%.
Professionals specialising in AI, machine learning, cybersecurity and cloud computing command salary premiums of 30% to 40%, reflecting demand for these capabilities.
Among professionals with up to two years of experience, median annual fixed salaries for AI-core roles range from ₹10.8 lakh for data scientists to ₹13.2 lakh for generative AI engineers.
In comparison, AI-adjacent roles, including cybersecurity engineers and data engineers, offer between ₹9 lakh and ₹10.2 lakh annually.
AI-support positions, such as data quality analysts and application support engineers, command between ₹4.8 lakh and ₹5.4 lakh.
The findings suggest that entry-level AI-core positions offer approximately 2.5 to three times the compensation available in supporting roles.
Looking ahead, the report projects stronger salary growth for professionals working with large language models, retrieval-augmented generation and prompt engineering, with these skills expected to record 20.5% growth during FY27–28.
Machine learning capabilities, including model deployment and frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlow, are projected to grow by 18.7%.
The findings indicate that India's GCC sector is increasingly linking talent investment to AI development, platform ownership and responsibility for enterprise technology outcomes.
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