Indian GCCs Pivot to Internal Reskilling Amid AI Talent Gap

India's Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are shifting their recruitment strategies from external hiring to internal reskilling to address a critical shortage of artificial intelligence talent. According to a Q1 FY27 report by Quess Corp, the AI, Data, and Analytics sector grew 10% quarter-on-quarter but suffers from a supply-demand gap between 36% and 40%.

To bridge this gap, organizations are transitioning employees from existing technical roles into specialized positions, such as moving backend developers into applied AI engineering. Hiring demand is currently concentrated on mid-career professionals with four to 12 years of experience, who represent 56% of total demand. While overall GCC hiring rose 5-6% sequentially, smaller centers with fewer than 500 employees grew fastest at 8%.

Manufacturing and Industrial remains the largest hiring sector, while Professional Services and Consulting is the fastest growing. Geographically, the ecosystem is expanding beyond established hubs like Bengaluru and Hyderabad into Tier-2 cities, including Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, and Kochi.