India’s Global Capability Centres are accelerating investments in artificial intelligence, but nearly 70% remain at the pilot stage, highlighting a gap between AI experimentation and enterprise-wide deployment, according to a new report by Dell Technologies and Zinnov.
The report, titled India GCCs 2030: From Capability Centers to Agentic Transformation Engines, is based on surveys and interactions with more than 50 senior GCC leaders across banking, financial services and insurance, retail, manufacturing and software sectors. It examines how GCCs are moving from technology support centres towards greater ownership of AI-led products, platforms and business outcomes.
India currently hosts more than 2,100 GCCs employing around 2.36 million professionals and generating $98.4 billion in revenue in FY26. The report estimates that Indian centres account for approximately 28% of global GCC AI talent, while more than 1,200 units have established dedicated AI and machine learning capabilities.
AI adoption ambitions are already widespread. Around 70% of GCCs have established a defined AI roadmap or charter, while 66% of leaders rank top-line business impact as a major priority for their enterprise AI strategy.
However, moving AI projects from proof-of-concept stages into sustained production remains a challenge. The report identifies fragmented data, legacy technology systems, unclear governance frameworks, immature security controls and existing talent models as some of the factors limiting deployment at scale.
The economics of agentic AI could add another layer of complexity. According to the report, agentic workflows can consume between 10,000 and 500,000 tokens per workflow, compared with around 1,000 to 2,000 tokens for a standard chat interaction. This increases the importance of making infrastructure, compute, security and cost decisions before AI systems move into production.
The shift is also expected to affect GCC workforces. The study estimates that about 55% of routine GCC work is exposed to AI-led automation, while nearly 60% of the workforce will require reskilling by 2030.
At the same time, leadership responsibilities are expanding. About 64% of GCC leaders now hold dual global mandates, managing their India centres while also overseeing a global function.
The report outlines a transition in which GCCs increasingly take responsibility for products, platforms, markets and measurable business outcomes. As agentic AI becomes integrated into enterprise workflows, the ability to scale AI with appropriate data, infrastructure, governance and talent frameworks is expected to become a key focus for India's GCC ecosystem.
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