AI jobs in GCCs in India, what capability centres hire for in 2026

India had 2,117 global capability centres (GCCs) in FY2026, according to Zinnov and Nasscom, with a combined workforce of 2.36 million. foundit's July 2026 tracker says these centres are on course for roughly 510,000 hires in 2026, with freshers their fastest-growing group, and that around two-thirds of the new roles ask for AI, data or automation skills.

What is a GCC and how many does India have?

A global capability centre is an in-house unit that a multinational company runs in India to do technology, analytics, finance or operations work for its parent. It is a different employer type from an IT services firm, which sells projects to clients. Zinnov and Nasscom's 2026 report on GCCs in India counts 2,117 centres across 3,728 units in FY2026, with revenue of $98.4 billion and a workforce of 2.36 million, as of March 2026.

An older figure comes from a PIB backgrounder of 12 October 2025, which relayed industry numbers: 1,800+ GCCs, more than 500 of them focused on AI, and over 6 million people employed in the tech and AI ecosystem. The Zinnov and Nasscom count is newer, so it is the better figure for the total.

GCCs hire for many functions besides AI. The 2.36 million workforce is not a count of AI jobs.

The table lists the main GCC figures and who published each.

How much GCC hiring in 2026 asks for AI, data or automation skills?

foundit's wording is careful: around two-thirds of the new roles in capability centres ask for AI, data or automation skills. That is a wider category than AI jobs. A finance operations role that asks for automation experience counts, and so does an analyst role that asks for data skills.

The figure is foundit's own estimate. Treat it as a direction: demand inside these centres is tilted towards people who can work with data and AI tools, not a count of AI engineer openings.

Why is AI hiring growing outside classic IT services?

Part of the answer is the employer survey data. In the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, 96% of surveyed organisations in India reported running AI programmes, against 88% globally, and 88% of Indian organisations said AI and information processing technologies would drive business transformation, against 86% globally. The sample is employers engaged with the World Economic Forum, so it should not be read as all Indian firms.

Posting data points the same way. Naukri's JobSpeak for September 2026 found AI/ML hiring within the IT sector up 11% year on year even as IT hiring overall fell 4%. In foundit's 2025 industry split, IT software and services held 37% of AI postings, growing 32%, while banking, financial services and insurance held 15.8% and grew fastest, at 41%, and manufacturing held 6% and grew 34%.

BFSI is the faster-growing sector, not the larger one. Some of the BFSI growth may sit inside capability centres. Readers who want the geographic side of this will find it in a separate post on AI jobs by city and sector.

What do postings from India-based teams ask for?

Two named postings from product companies with Indian offices show what applied AI work asks for.

Observe.AI's AI Agent Engineer posting in Hyderabad, dated 23 September 2026, describes a client-facing, delivery-focused role to design, integrate and deploy enterprise voice and chat AI agents. It covers prompt design, workflow configuration, API integrations, telephony setup and evaluation frameworks, and states that the role is not about building foundational models.

Rubrik's Senior Applied AI Engineer posting in Bangalore, updated 21 October 2026, targets 8+ years of software engineering with 1 to 2 years of hands-on experience shipping AI-agent features into production. It also asks for React or Next.js, REST APIs, distributed systems and reliability practices.

Both describe applied work, building on models rather than creating them. The experience bar in the second is high, which is consistent with Naukri's finding that AI/ML hiring for 13 to 16 years of experience grew 54% in September 2026 and for 8 to 12 years grew 28%. A comparison of AI engineer, data scientist and machine learning engineer roles sets out how these titles differ.

Do GCCs hire freshers, and how large is that group?

foundit calls freshers the fastest-growing group in GCC hiring in 2026. That describes a growth rate, not a share. Fastest-growing does not mean largest, and a group can grow quickly from a small base.

The wider fresher market gives context. foundit's July 2026 tracker says AI-led roles rose from about 1% of fresher postings to 4% in a year, a fourfold rise, while overall fresher hiring fell 10% and white-collar hiring fell 12% in the year to July 2026. Naukri's reading differs: it showed overall white-collar hiring up 2% in September 2026, with fresher AI/ML hiring up 19%. The two trackers disagree on the overall trend, which is a reason to name the tracker whenever a figure is quoted.

foundit puts AI-led fresher roles at about 4% of postings, up from 1%, and Naukri shows fresher AI/ML hiring up 19%. For the roles themselves, a guide to entry-level machine learning jobs lists what fresher postings ask for.

What changes for someone moving from an IT services firm to a product company or GCC?

One reading of the postings above, offered as reasoning and not a measured finding, is a shift from delivering to a client's specification towards owning a system once it is live. Rubrik's posting lists reliability practices alongside AI work. Sarvam AI's Agent Engineer posting in Bengaluru, dated 20 August 2026, says that having shipped and run something real users depended on matters more than years of experience, and it asks for the ability to sit with a customer's engineering team.

That expectation is a real adjustment for people used to narrower scopes. For people already working as software engineers, a guide to moving from software engineering to machine learning covers the skills gap in detail. The broader question of which jobs AI changes is covered in an earlier post on tech jobs that AI is unlikely to replace.

How can someone target GCC roles?

Start with the skills the postings repeat: Python, data handling, a working machine learning workflow, and API and deployment basics for the applied roles. foundit's reading of 2025 postings says entry roles focus on Python, SQL and machine learning basics. Then look at which centres hire in the target city, since a GCC in BFSI asks for different domain knowledge than one in manufacturing.

The Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Certification Program is an online programme from E&ICT Academy, IIT Roorkee, run with Masai as the implementation partner, with live sessions and an optional campus immersion, covering Python, data handling, machine learning, generative AI, LLMs and a capstone project. The programme ends with a capstone project.

Frequently asked questions

How many GCCs are there in India in 2026?

Zinnov and Nasscom's 2026 report on GCCs in India counts 2,117 global capability centres across 3,728 units in FY2026, with a workforce of 2.36 million and revenue of $98.4 billion, as of March 2026. An older PIB backgrounder from 12 October 2025 cited 1,800+ centres, more than 500 of them focused on AI.

Do GCCs hire freshers in India?

Yes. foundit's July 2026 tracker calls freshers the fastest-growing group in GCC hiring this year. Growth should not be read as a majority. Naukri's September 2026 data had fresher AI/ML hiring up 19%, against 54% for roles at 13 to 16 years of experience.

How many GCC jobs need AI skills?

foundit's July 2026 tracker says GCCs are on course for roughly 510,000 hires in 2026, and around two-thirds of the new roles ask for AI, data or automation skills. That is a broader category than AI jobs. It is foundit's own estimate.

Is a GCC job different from an IT services job?

A GCC works for one parent company on its own technology and operations, while an IT services firm delivers projects to many clients. Naukri's September 2026 JobSpeak shows AI/ML hiring within the IT sector up 11% while IT hiring overall fell 4%, so AI hiring in services is growing against a shrinking sector.

Next step

The Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Certification, E&ICT Academy IIT Roorkee page sets out the curriculum and how to apply.