From Call Centres to AI: The Remarkable Evolution of India’s GCCs | Vaishnavi Kudige

India’s global capability centre story is no longer about answering calls, processing transactions or simply doing work at a lower cost. It is becoming a story about expertise, innovation, specialised talent and the ability to operate critical parts of global businesses from anywhere.

In this Brown Business episode, part of our Member Stories series, we speak with Vaishnavi Kudige, a seasoned global executive with more than two decades of experience building and leading large-scale capability centres and transformation programmes. Her journey offers a revealing look at how India’s GCC ecosystem has evolved,  and where it could be heading next.

Having witnessed the shift from early call-centre and BPO models to today’s sophisticated Global Capability Centres, Vaishnavi brings a perspective shaped by on-the-ground experience. What began as a model centred largely on cost and transactional work has evolved into a much more strategic proposition, with Indian teams now supporting areas ranging from financial services and engineering to artificial intelligence, legal services and highly specialised global operations.

But the opportunity comes with important caveats. Assuming a GCC can be replicated simply because thousands of companies have already established centres in India is one of the biggest blind spots. Cost arbitrage alone is not a strategy. Companies need to understand local regulations, licensing requirements, labour frameworks, talent pools, and the wider ecosystem in which they operate. More importantly, they need strong local leadership that can connect these moving parts.

The scale and sophistication of the work being carried out from India is perhaps the most striking part of the conversation. Teams based thousands of kilometres away are managing complex operations, including areas as specialised as nuclear waste management, engineering and remote surveillance. The distance between where work happens and where its impact is felt is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

That shift also changes the conversation around artificial intelligence. Rather than viewing AI simply as a replacement for people, the discussion explores how technology can amplify human capability, create leverage and reshape the nature of work. The challenge is not merely adopting new technology, but ensuring that people develop the deeper skills required to work alongside it. Education, specialised expertise and access to talent outside traditional metropolitan centres could become increasingly important as this transformation accelerates.

The future, however, may not belong to a single GCC located in a single city. A more distributed global model is emerging; one where organisations build teams and centres around talent, expertise and time zones. India can remain a major hub while other locations across Asia, Europe and elsewhere contribute specific capabilities. The result is a genuinely global operating model, capable of supporting businesses across markets and time zones.

For leaders, this creates a different challenge. Managing thousands of employees is no longer necessarily the defining measure of GCC leadership. Building trust, connection and cohesion across virtual and geographically dispersed teams may matter far more. At the same time, India’s own regulatory complexity and differences between states highlight the need for continued collaboration between business leaders and government to make the country easier to navigate for global organisations.

The conversation also becomes personal as Vaishnavi reflects on her own journey, from her early experiences in the technology industry and the evolution of the GCC ecosystem to navigating growth, downturns, redundancies and increasingly distributed teams. Her story ultimately reminds us that the success of India’s GCC transformation is also measured by the careers and leadership journeys it has created.

For Vaishnavi, being part of the Global Indian Network is about exactly that kind of exchange: meeting interesting people, having meaningful conversations and continuing to learn from the work being done across the global Indian community.

Listen to the full episode to explore how India’s GCC story is evolving, and what the next generation of global capability could look like.

Disclaimer: The perspectives expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of our platform. This discussion is intended solely for knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as an endorsement.

Produced by Global Indian Series for the Global Indian Network.

Script by Rajan Nazran
original idea: Rajan Nazran

Introduction music: (https://freesound.org/people/Timbre)