GCCs Must Rethink Roles, Deepen AI To Stay Competitive: BCG

India, the US, and Mexico lead in balanced Global Capability Centres, with India excelling in scale and innovation. AI, particularly advanced applications like GenAI, is crucial for GCC maturity.

India, The US And Mexico Lead In Balanced GCCs, With India Excelling In Scale And Innovation.

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India, the US and Mexico have emerged as the most balanced global capability centre (GCC) ecosystems globally — with India uniquely combining scale, innovation and efficiency, a report showed on Wednesday.

The report highlights AI — notably advanced AI use cases including GenAI, NLP and AI agents — as a critical accelerator of GCC maturity. While top performers have moved beyond pilots to embed AI across core workflows, most GCCs remain trapped in early-stage experimentation, said the report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

“GCCs have always been good at acting as the engine room — now the best ones are learning to steer the ship,” said Sreyssha George, Managing Director and Partner at BCG.

AI has brought fresh momentum — enabling GCCs to lead transformation, not just support it. Over 90 per cent of top performers have set up or expanded AI-led Centers of Excellence in the past 18 months, a trend consistent across industries and geographies, he mentioned.

The report outlines a three-step playbook for GCCs to accelerate maturity and have an increased role in enterprise impact: define a bold North Star aligned with the enterprise vision, prioritise high-impact value pools based on differentiating factors for top performers, and conduct structured diagnostics to benchmark capability gaps and build a roadmap for scaled transformation.

The report said that GCCs poised to lead are those that reimagine their role — not just as delivery arms, but as capability centres driving innovation, enterprise agility, and competitive advantage.

Those that invest in talent, embed AI deeply, and take co-ownership of outcomes are best positioned to shape the next wave of global enterprise transformation.

“GCCs which treat AI as a bolt-on will never close the gap,” said Rajiv Gupta, Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG. “The frontrunners have strategically embedded AI into their operating models, at a scale which makes a material difference at the enterprise level”.

The leaders are not experimenting — they are delivering meaningful outcomes.

More than 90 per cent top performing GCCs implement advanced AI use cases vs 50 per cent of others. The risk for others is falling into an auto-pilot mode, Gupta added.

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)