Awfis Space Solutions Ltd., in partnership with global management consulting and market research firm Zinnov, has launched a report titled The Great Workplace Reset: How India GCCs are Redefining Work, Workforce, and Workspace.

The report highlights how India’s Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are evolving from execution hubs into strategic ownership centres, driving significant changes in hiring, talent development and workspace requirements.

India currently hosts 2,117 GCCs operating 3,728 units, generating an estimated USD 98.4 billion in revenue in FY26 and employing more than 2.36 million professionals. The number of GCCs has increased nearly 32% since FY21, with 506 Global 2000 companies operating centres in the country.

The report notes a significant shift in the nature of work undertaken by GCCs, with complex problem-solving activities accounting for 38.1% of the work portfolio. Cutting-edge R&D work has also doubled, indicating a move towards higher-value capabilities. Companies actively developing AI products have twice the share of cutting-edge R&D work in India compared with companies primarily adopting third-party AI solutions.

The transformation is also driving demand for specialised talent. India’s AI/ML talent pool within GCCs has nearly doubled from 122,000 professionals in 2023 to a projected 250,000 in 2026, making the country the second-largest AI talent market globally after the US.

Workspace decisions are increasingly being driven by talent, control, speed, flexibility and brand rather than traditional real estate considerations. India recorded its highest-ever quarterly office leasing volume of 20.7 million sq ft in Q1 2026, with GCCs accounting for 44%, or 9.1 million sq ft, of the demand.

GCCs now account for 40-45% of enterprise flexible workspace seat uptake, while 67% of GCCs plan to increase flexible space to more than 10% of their overall real estate portfolio, the report said.

The report also includes case studies of GCCs that scaled from incubation to more than 3,000 seats within months through managed and flexible workspace solutions provided by Awfis.

Amit Ramani, Chairman and Managing Director of Awfis Space Solutions, said the evolving strategic role of GCCs is creating demand for workspaces that can scale at the pace of business. He added that Awfis’ integrated offering across flexible workspaces, managed offices and design-and-build solutions is aimed at meeting these requirements.

Nitika Goel, CMO and Managing Partner at Zinnov, said the shift towards AI industrialisation has transformed GCC workforce requirements, with workspace decisions increasingly becoming a leadership-level consideration driven by talent, control, speed, flexibility and brand.