India’s GCCs are increasingly looking beyond traditional technology hiring, with demand for non-tech talent projected to cross five lakh roles by 2028, according to a new report by Quess Corp.
The report, India’s GCC Non-Tech Talent Landscape, finds that sales operations, finance and business operations together account for more than 60% of non-tech GCC demand, signalling a broader shift in the role of GCCs as they evolve from execution centres into strategic and decision-making hubs.
Demand for non-tech roles grew 17.2% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, with digitally enabled business functions emerging as a major driver. Digital platforms, analytics, automation, and AI are increasingly shaping these roles rather than traditional process execution.
Mid-career professionals are at the centre of this shift. Employees with 7–12 years of experience accounted for nearly 60% of non-tech GCC demand in 2025, while this talent pool is estimated to reach 2.5 lakh professionals in 2026, growing at a three-year CAGR of 21%.
“Centres that were set up to execute instructions are becoming intelligence and strategy hubs, trusted with judgment rather than just delivery, and nearly one in every three business operations postings and one in every four finance, risk and governance postings already reflect that, requiring digital platforms, analytics or AI tools as standard,” Kapil Joshi, CEO of IT Staffing, Quess Corp said. “It’s the same shift driving GCCs to become genuinely multi-functional: across our base of 2,400 plus centres, nearly 90% already run multiple capability towers instead of siloed functions, and we expect that model to define the next wave of centres coming into India.”
The geographic distribution of this demand is also widening. Bengaluru accounted for nearly 25% of non-tech GCC demand in the first half of 2026, followed by Delhi at 12%, Mumbai at 10%, Hyderabad at 9% and Pune at 7%. Meanwhile, emerging locations and tier-2 cities collectively accounted for nearly 35% of demand, pointing to a gradual expansion of GCC hiring beyond India’s established technology hubs.
The sectoral picture is similarly broadening. Pharma and healthcare led demand for non-tech GCC talent, followed by BFSI and technology and product companies, with governance, analytics, compliance and transformation capabilities driving recruitment.
Quess expects the 2026–28 period to be defined less by sheer hiring volumes and more by capability-led recruitment. Business operations and transformation are expected to remain the biggest drivers, alongside demand across finance, sales and marketing, supply chain and procurement, HR, and research and analytics.
The report points to a fundamental change in what GCCs expect from non-tech employees. Rather than hiring purely for functional expertise, centres increasingly seek professionals who can combine domain knowledge, digital fluency and decision-making responsibility.
This suggests the next phase of India’s GCC expansion may be measured not simply by how many people these centres employ, but by how much strategic responsibility they are able to take on.
As AI automates routine processes, the premium is increasingly shifting towards employees who can interpret data, exercise judgement, manage stakeholders and drive enterprise transformation.
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