The Future Operating Model for GCCs

Category: Operations Date: August 2025 Reading Time: 6 min Sources: EY India GCC Pulse Survey 2025, NASSCOM-Zinnov GCC Landscape Report 2026

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The Operating Model Is Changing

The GCC operating model is at an inflection point. Three forces are driving change simultaneously: AI adoption, talent evolution, and governance maturation.

AI is Reshaping Operations

Current adoption:

• 83% of GCCs investing in GenAI

• 58% investing in Agentic AI

• 67% creating dedicated innovation teams

  Functional impact:

• Customer Service: 65% using GenAI

• Finance: 53%

• Operations: 49%

• IT/Cybersecurity: 45%

  The Human-AI Operating Model

  The future is not human vs. AI. It is human + AI.

  What this means:

• AI handles routine, high-volume tasks

• Humans focus on judgment, creativity, relationships

• New roles emerge: AI trainers, prompt engineers, AI ethicists

• Workflows are redesigned around AI capabilities

  The governance implication: AI adoption requires clear accountability frameworks. Who owns the AI? Who is responsible when it fails? These questions must be answered before deployment.

  Talent Model Evolution

  Traditional: Hire full-time employees for all capabilities.

  Emerging: Hybrid models combining:

• Core full-time team for strategic capabilities

• Contractors and specialists for specific projects

• AI systems for routine work

• Ecosystem partnerships for specialised needs

  Governance Changes

  | Traditional | Emerging |

|------------|---------| | HQ makes key decisions | Shared accountability | | Annual planning cycles | Continuous deployment | | Centralised vendor management | Distributed procurement authority | | Fixed headcount targets | Outcome-based scaling |

What the data shows:

• 52% of GCCs hold shared accountability for global decisions

• 20% operate with full ownership of global decisions from India

• 45% drive global strategy leadership from India

  Building the Future-Ready Operating Model

  1. Audit current state: Where are you on the automation-to-AI spectrum?

2. Define AI governance: Who owns AI decisions? What are the accountability frameworks? 3. Redesign workflows: Don't bolt AI onto existing processes—redesign for AI-native operations 4. Invest in reskilling: 81% of GCCs upskilling on GenAI (EY GCC Pulse 2025) 5. Evolve governance gradually: Full autonomy is the destination, not the starting point ... [truncated for context limit]