India's GCCs are taking on greater responsibility for artificial intelligence and business outcomes, with 44% now at a portfolio hub or transformation stage, according to a TeamLease Digital report. The talent solutions firm also found higher pay for specialist AI roles than for support positions.

Key Takeaways

  • The report counts 2,117 active global capability centres in India, employing 2.36 million people.
  • GCC salary increments in 2026 stood at 10.4%, compared with a 9.1% average across Indian companies.
  • For workers with up to two years of experience, median fixed pay ranged from ₹10.8 lakh a year for data scientists to ₹13.2 lakh for GenAI engineers.

India's GCCs expand their AI responsibilities

Global capability centres, or GCCs, have traditionally delivered services for global enterprises. TeamLease Digital said a growing share now own platforms, products, AI adoption and business-critical outcomes.

The report counted more than 1,200 AI-enabled GCCs in India and said 83% of centres were scaling generative AI. It also found that 70% followed a hybrid AI model and 58% were investing in agentic AI.

Across all activities, the centres generated $98.4 billion in annual revenue, the report said. Neeti Sharma, CEO of TeamLease Digital, said the next phase of growth would depend on judgment, governance and turning AI into business outcomes.

ItemDetails
Data scientist, AI-core₹10.8 lakh median fixed pay per year
GenAI engineer, AI-core₹13.2 lakh median fixed pay per year
Cybersecurity engineer, AI-adjacent₹9.0 lakh median fixed pay per year
Data engineer, AI-adjacent₹10.2 lakh median fixed pay per year
Data quality analyst, AI-support₹4.8 lakh median fixed pay per year
Application support engineer, AI-support₹5.4 lakh median fixed pay per year

Specialist skills command higher pay

The salary findings were based on a survey of 37,000 technology and digital roles. TeamLease Digital said AI, machine learning, cybersecurity and cloud skills carried a 30–40% pay premium, attributing the difference to demand exceeding supply.

The report distinguished between AI-core roles that build and own intelligent systems, AI-adjacent roles that apply AI in established workflows, and support roles. Its examples for workers with zero to two years of experience show the pay gap between those groups.

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