India's GCCs confident for 2030 but face critical AI literacy gap at 27%

90% of India's GCC leaders confident through 2030, but AI literacy stuck at 27%

India's Global Capability Centres are becoming AI hubs, but leadership AI literacy remains low. Most leaders are confident India will lead globally through 2030. However, less than 30% of leaders possess sufficient AI literacy for strategic decisions. GCCs must reskill over 40% of their workforce for this AI transformation. India's Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are increasingly positioning themselves as strategic, AI-driven hubs for global enterprises, but a significant gap in leadership AI readiness could threaten that ambition, according to a new PwC India-FICCI report. Nearly 90% of GCC leaders surveyed said they were confident that India would retain its global leadership position through 2030. Yet leadership AI literacy stands at just 27% on average, with more than 90% of GCCs reporting that 40% or fewer of their leadership teams have sufficient AI literacy to make strategic decisions. The report, titled Navigating the Skills Imperative for India's GCCs in the AI Era, is based on a survey of 200 senior GCC executives across eight industries. GCCs shift from cost centres to AI hubs The report finds that GCCs are moving beyond their traditional role as cost-efficient service providers and becoming strategic centres for digital innovation, decision-making and AI-led transformation. Around 86% of GCC leaders expect AI to bring substantial or transformational changes to the nature of work by 2030. But building AI-native organisations will require more than hiring specialists. At least 72% of GCCs across sectors and company sizes will need to reskill or upskill more than 40% of their workforce, pointing to an enterprise-wide transformation rather than incremental training programmes. Around 62% of leaders identified the lack of professionals who combine domain expertise with technology capabilities as their biggest supply-side constraint. This was followed by intense competition for talent at 55% and a shortage of senior leaders with AI-era strategic capabilities at 52%. "The gap between hiring talent and making it truly AI-ready needs to be bridged through deliberate, structured, and sector-relevant skilling pathways," Raghav Narsalay, Partner and Leader - Research and Insight Hub at PwC India, said. GCCs may need to spend more on existing talent Most GCCs currently allocate 3-5% of their operating budgets to talent development. However, 94% of leaders believe this needs to increase to at least 6%, while more than a quarter expect spending to cross 8%. The pressure is particularly high in knowledge-intensive and regulated sectors. Reskilling needs are highest in energy, at 87%, followed by life sciences and healthcare at 80% each. Even sectors with relatively lower requirements, including BFSI, technology, media and telecom, and manufacturing, have reskilling needs approaching 50%. The challenge is compounded by the time required to turn new employees into productive workers. New hires take an average of 8.69 months to reach full productivity, creating a significant gap between recruiting talent and deploying it effectively. The skills India needs are changing The report suggests that GCC competitiveness will increasingly depend on combining frontier AI capabilities such as data engineering, machine learning and cybersecurity with capabilities that machines cannot easily replace, including domain expertise, business judgment and strategic leadership. "India's GCC story is at an inflection point," Rajesh Ojha, Partner and Leader - GCC Market Segment at PwC India, said. "The GCCs that succeed will be those that build composite skills and capabilities, combining frontier AI skills with deep domain knowledge and human judgment." Industry leaders are also calling for changes outside individual companies. About 57% want AI and digital modules embedded into engineering and management curricula, while 51% support government co-funding of GCC reskilling programmes. The report's findings suggest that India's GCC advantage in the AI era may ultimately depend less on how many AI professionals the country can add and more on how quickly existing workforces and leadership teams can adapt to an AI-first operating model. For India, that makes the next phase of the GCC story a race not simply to hire AI talent, but to make the people already running these global centres AI-ready.

Talent Upskilling Critical to GCC Advantage Over Next Four Years: PwC-FICCI

72% of GCCs believe they must upskill more than 40% of their workforce to maximise their value. Nearly 90% of India's Global Capability Centre (GCC) leaders are confident about retaining their global leadership position through 2030 but cite unresolved talent and skill gaps across AI and sector-specific knowledge as risks that could retard growth, according to PwC India-FICCI's study titled, "Navigating the skills imperative for India's GCCs in the AI era." The report, based on a survey of 200 senior GCC executives across eight industries, finds that GCC leaders believe workforce upskilling is an urgent requirement. At least 72% of GCCs across sectors and sizes must reskill or upskill over 40% of their workforce. This entails enterprise-wide scale, not incremental programmes. Most GCCs currently allocate 3-5% of operating budgets to talent development. However, an overwhelming 94% believe investments must rise to at least 6%, with more than a quarter expecting spending to exceed 8%. Rajesh Ojha, Partner and Leader - GCC Market Segment, PwC India, said, "India's GCC story is at an inflection point. GCCs are increasingly becoming the enterprise nerve centre where strategic decision-making, digital innovation, and AI-led transformation converge to create global business impact. But sustaining this shift will require a fundamental reimagining of workflows, leadership models, and skilling ecosystems. The GCCs that succeed will be those that build composite skills and capabilities, combining frontier AI skills with deep domain knowledge and human judgment." As enterprises increasingly deploy AI across core operations, the report finds that GCCs are shifting from being cost-efficient service providers to becoming AI-native intelligence cores with 86% of leaders expecting AI to bring substantial or transformational change to the nature of work by 2030. A blend of frontier AI capabilities (data engineering, machine learning, cybersecurity) and foundational competencies (domain expertise, business judgment, strategic leadership) will be the new competitive advantage. Raghav Narsalay, Partner and Leader - Research and Insight Hub, PwC India, said: " AI aspirations are outpacing leadership preparedness, and the gap between hiring talent and making it truly AI-ready needs to be bridged through deliberate, structured, and sector-relevant skilling pathways ." Key insights from the report: * Top talent supply constraints for GCCs: 62% of leaders cite the absence of professionals combining domain expertise with tech capabilities as the biggest supply-side constraint, followed by intense competition for talent (55%) and a shortage of senior leaders with AI-era strategic competencies (52%). * AI literacy gap at the top: Leadership AI literacy stands at just 27% on average, with over 90% of GCCs reporting that 40% or fewer of their leadership team possess sufficient AI literacy for strategic decision-making. * Sector-specific pressure points: Reskilling needs are steepest in regulated, knowledge-intensive sectors like energy (87%), life sciences (80%), and healthcare (80%), though even the lowest-need sectors (BFSI, TMT, manufacturing) sit near 50%, making it a universal challenge. * Slow time-to-productivity: New hires take an average of 8.69 months to become fully productive and is a friction point which stands between talent ambition and execution.