This 23,000-Employee MNC is Betting on Pune Nano GCC for AI Solutions
By Shalini Mondal ·
As enterprises rethink how and where global technology capabilities are built, Orbia, which offers solutions in speciality chemicals, advanced materials, and infrastructure, is taking a deliberately lean, value-driven approach to its global capability centre (GCC) strategy. Its Pune centre is focused on AI-led security, data foundations, and high-impact engineering talent.
Nano GCCs are capability-rich, leadership-heavy hubs, typically housing 50–150 skilled experts who work on advanced domains that demand precision, confidentiality, regulatory alignment, and higher intellectual capital. These units are emerging as an alternative to the traditional large-format centres that have so far defined India’s GCC landscape.
At present, Orbia’s Pune GCC has around 50 technology-focused professionals, with plans to scale to 100–120 in the coming months. Much of this growth will come from insourcing talent that was previously external.
Talking to AIM, Andrea Bergamini, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Orbia, mentions that setting up its first GCC in Pune was a strategic and pragmatic choice. Rather than competing in saturated markets like Bengaluru or Hyderabad, Orbia selected Pune for its strong alignment with industrial manufacturing, engineering depth, and relatively balanced talent dynamics.
“It was the right place to start our innovation journey in India,” Bergamini remarks, adding that the Mexico-headquartered company plans to set up more GCCs globally.
This is especially important as regulators across the US, EU, and Asia-Pacific increasingly demand transparency, traceability, and accountability in how global operations are run, particularly when AI, data, risk, and safety are involved. This is where nano GCCs operate best, ensuring compliance through compact teams, high governance intensity, and controlled operating models.
AI for Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity and AI sit at the heart of Orbia’s technology agenda. The company is already using AI extensively across its security operations, particularly in managed detection and response, and identity and access management .
AI is being applied to automate mundane workflows, analyse incidents, generate executive summaries, and even enable elements of self-healing detection systems. However, Bergamini is candid about the challenges that come with rapid AI adoption.
“The biggest issue is unmanaged AI agents. That’s an open problem,” he adds.
He explains that traditional IAM (identity and access management) frameworks are ill-equipped to handle the proliferation of AI agents, especially when it comes to sensitive data. Current mitigation strategies rely on “defence in depth,” tighter data restrictions, and contextual approvals—but no silver bullet exists yet.
“Cybersecurity is always one step behind innovation,” Bergamini remarks, calling observability the most practical tool organisations currently have to understand risk exposure.
The immediate priority is foundational: moving data platform capabilities, reporting, and enterprise insights into the GCC. Bergamini states that this is non-negotiable. “Data foundations are critical for AI enablement. That’s why more and more of our platform delivery team is based in Pune.”
The GCC comprises roughly one-third of Orbia’s global IT talent pool, which is part of its roughly 23,000-strong workforce. For now, its remit is purely technology, though Bergamini expects other corporate functions such as finance and HR to eventually follow.
Becoming Value Creators
Orbia’s hiring philosophy in India marks a clear shift from traditional GCC models. The focus is on senior, experienced engineers.
“We’re not looking for order takers,” Bergamini says. “We want curious people who challenge the status quo.”
Soft skills, execution mindset, and cultural fit matter as much as technical depth. While Orbia has successfully hired senior leaders for data platforms and the CIO's office in Pune, Bergamini acknowledges ongoing challenges in niche areas such as identity and AI engineering. For these roles, the company often has to expand searches nationwide or explore partnerships.
Orbia maintains strong partnerships with Microsoft and ecosystem players such as Databricks, while remaining deliberately model-agnostic regarding LLMs. The company is aggressively adopting Microsoft Copilot but is equally open to small, specialised language models that better suit its chemical and manufacturing use cases.
So far, AI has only been deployed at scale in cybersecurity. Elsewhere, Orbia is running multiple high-value, localised experiments across finance, supply chain, and mining operations. An internal AI task force is now being formed to accelerate investments.
Identity modernisation is another major focus area, with a significant portion of Orbia’s identity team based in India. The team is actively exploring agentic AI and reassessing legacy IAM stacks.
Bergamini notes that traditional, monolithic tools such as SailPoint and CyberArk may no longer be sufficient on their own, as newer solutions from the past three years offer more flexibility for an AI-driven future.
India Beyond Labour Arbitrage
Having worked with India for over 15 years, Bergamini observed that the market has fundamentally changed. Salaries are rising, competition is intensifying—and that, he believes, is a good thing.
“India is no longer a labour arbitrage market. It has to be a value-adding market,” he mentions.
Orbia’s lean GCC model reflects this belief. Commodity IT services remain partially outsourced, while critical roles—architecture, engineering, and service management—are increasingly insourced with senior talent. This shift has already moved India’s share of Orbia’s IT workforce from 10% to nearly 30%.
If the model continues to deliver, Bergamini expects it to become a blueprint for other corporate functions, reinforcing Pune’s role as a strategic nerve centre for Orbia’s global technology agenda.