New Delhi, Dec 11, 2025
Fortune 500 Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India now employ over 126,600 professionals in AI-aligned roles, making India the world’s largest, most dynamic, and fastest-growing enterprise AI talent hub, according to a report on Thursday.
Of these, more than 18,300 constitute core AI experts working in machine learning, deep learning, LLM engineering, MLOps, and GenAI platform development — marking a major shift in GCCs from execution centres to AI innovation command hubs, according to the report by ANSR in partnership with Wizmatic.
“The world’s next great competitive advantage won’t come from who builds the most powerful AI models, but from who can mobilize talent to make AI real inside the enterprise. And on that front, India and its GCCs are stepping into a historic leadership role,” said Vikram Ahuja, Co-founder, ANSR,
According to the study, Fortune 500 GCCs in India now employ over 126,600 professionals in AI-aligned roles, making India the world’s largest, most dynamic, and fastest-growing enterprise AI talent hub.
GCCs now account for 22.5 per cent of India’s total AI talent demand, with AI-aligned talent making up 13 per cent of the entire Fortune 500 GCC workforce.
For every core AI role, GCCs deploy an additional 5-6 adjacently-skilled professionals in software engineering, data pipelines, and platform engineering to support AI deployment and scaling.
India’s AI talent concentration has grown 252 per cent between 2016–2024, now standing 2.51 times higher than the global average.
India has also reversed the decade-long brain drain trend, retaining more senior AI talent domestically due to high-impact GCC roles, competitive compensation, and access to global-scale AI problem statements, said the report.
The report outlines a five-stage maturity curve, showing GCCs progressing from digitization to full-scale AI orchestration.
By 2028, many GCCs will be deploying enterprise-grade, autonomous AI systems, with the most mature centres transforming into Cognitive Intelligence Hubs aligned directly with global boardroom decision-making.
While Bengaluru leads with 30 per cent of India’s total AI workforce, Hyderabad has seen a sharp rise in AI centre of excellences (CoEs) anchored by cloud majors and deep-tech GCCs. Chennai and Pune continue to strengthen domain-led AI capabilities across BFSI, industrial, and healthcare.(Agency)
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