New Delhi

India's Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are increasingly shifting from external hiring to role-adjacent reskilling to build artificial intelligence (AI) and digital capabilities, as organisations look to address widening talent gaps while meeting growing demand for specialised technology skills, according to a report by Quess Corp.

The report said organisations are increasingly enabling professionals with adjacent technical skills to transition into emerging technology roles instead of relying solely on external recruitment. Professionals with four to 12 years of experience accounted for around 56 per cent of total GCC hiring demand in the first quarter of FY27, while overall hiring grew by around 5-6 per cent quarter-on-quarter. Demand remained concentrated in AI, Data and Analytics, Platform Engineering, Cloud and Infrastructure Engineering, and Cybersecurity.

According to the report, AI, Data and Analytics emerged as the fastest-growing capability area, expanding by around 10 per cent quarter-on-quarter and contributing 16.7 per cent of total hiring demand. However, the segment also recorded the largest supply-demand gap of between 36 and 40 per cent, prompting organisations to increasingly complement external hiring with structured reskilling and internal capability development.

Commenting on the findings, Kapil Joshi, CEO, Quess IT Staffing, said, "The next chapter of India's GCC growth will be defined less by the scale of hiring and more by the ability to continuously create new capabilities. Organisations that successfully combine AI adoption with workforce transformation will position India not just as the world's technology talent hub, but as a global centre for enterprise innovation and product leadership."

The report also noted that GCCs with fewer than 500 employees recorded the fastest hiring growth of around 8 per cent during the quarter, while organisations with 1,000-5,000 employees continued to account for around 40 per cent of total hiring demand. Professional Services and Consulting emerged as the fastest-growing GCC sector with around 9 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth, while Manufacturing and Industrial remained the largest hiring segment with a 25.1 per cent share.

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Tier-2 cities also continued to strengthen their role in India's GCC ecosystem, with their share of hiring demand rising to around 11-13 per cent following sequential growth of 8-10 per cent. Cities such as Coimbatore, Ahmedabad and Kochi expanded their presence in technology delivery, enterprise support and cloud operations, complementing larger technology hubs including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai and NCR.