The global uncertainty and disruptions unleashed by US President Donald Trump’s high-decibel trade tantrums and policy flip-flops, coupled with the volley of layoffs triggered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) may have set the tone for 2025, but even as pink slips piled up in Silicon Valley, it was India and Telangana in particular, that quietly pulled in global capability centres (GCCs) of multinationals.
What does 2026 hold in store? Will AI continue to hold the job market to ransom as it expands into new domains, or will it finally act as the catalyst for a smarter, more resilient workforce?”2025 was a year of disruption and innovation,” says Neeti Sharma, CEO, TeamLease Digital. “In 2026, we’ll see stability in the disruption that started in 2025 as organisations move from experimentation to scale with AI,” she said.
Jaideep Kewalramani, head of Employability Business & COO, TeamLease EdTech, is equally upbeat. “The year 2025 saw a resumption of govt capital spending after the first full budget was presented post-election, which has catalysed industry spending. Earnings have recovered, which is a good sign for corporates to invest in growth, so 2026 should be very positive.” GCC investments, he stresses, are “continuing unabated,” even if trade-deal headwinds with the US linger.
Skills shake-upHiring, the two insist, will be strong but selective. “Employers want talent that is AI-ready and in continuous learning mode,” says Kewalramani. “Work-linked degrees or placement linked training will help talent secure good roles.” Sharma agrees: “The conversation will pivot from how many people are hired to what those people can do. Organisations will hire fewer people for routine tasks but will invest heavily in talent that can put AI into production, secure it and govern it.””As we move into 2026, software engineering is headed for a significant shift.
The focus will no longer be on how much code developers can write, but on how quickly teams can produce production-ready software with the help of advanced AI tools,” says Mohammed Anzy S, vice president and managing director, Guidewire India.”With the release of new competent models, 2025 marked the ‘capability cliff,’ and 2026 will mark the adoption inflection, where these tools become essential to modern engineering workflows. Product managers, founders, analysts, and designers will increasingly convert their requirements directly into working prototypes within hours. Engineers, meanwhile, will spend less time on routine code and more on ensuring systems are robust and scalable.Sharma of TeamLease Digital warns pay gaps could widen. “We’ll see a large salary spread between specialist and generic roles. Demand will cluster around AI-native engineering, cloud, cyber-security, domain-led AI and governance, compliance and risk,” she said.
She points out that overall, AI is expanding demand for high-value, skill-intensive jobs, making reskilling critical through 2026.”Skills like LLM Safety and Tuning with packages ranging from `20-25 lakh per annum (LPA) for mid senior level, `25-32 LPA packages for agent-design or `18-24 LPA for AI Compliance and Risk Ops will be in high demand in Hyderabad in 2026,” she says, indicating that while routine coding maybe fading, AI-native talent will thrive.GCC headcount to heftBy 2026, India’s GCC ecosystem is expected to move decisively from scale-led growth to capability-led maturity, says Roop Kaistha, regional managing director–APAC, AMS. “Demand will remain strong for skills across AI, cloud, cyber-security and platform engineering.” Freshers, already 42% of current GCC headcount, will be “a central pillar of long-term capability building,” she adds, buoyed by a multi-city approach with Bengaluru for deep-tech, Hyderabad and Pune for enterprise mandates, and tier-2 cities for cost-efficient growth.India hosts over 1,700 GCCs employing about 1.9 million people, roughly 55% of the global share.
AMS projects India will have 2,200–2,500 GCCs by 2030, growing to a $110-billion market with total employment of 2.8 million. Bengaluru may still lead the pack, but Hyderabad sprinted ahead in terms of new GCCs in 2025. AMS pegs Hyderabad’s GCC count at over 355, accounting for 21% of India’s total.
It now hosts over 12% of India’s GCC talent.Telangana in overdriveWith new investments clinched by Telangana at Davos alone at `1.78 lakh crore not to forget the ` 5.75 lakh crore investment intents and commitments at Global Summit, the state is expected to shift its GSDP, which stood at `16.12 lakh crore in FY 2024-25, thanks to a 10.1% jump, to soar higher. While agriculture still employs 42.7% of the state’s workforce, formal job creation is now concentrated in high-skill urban pockets, says TeamLease Digital, which estimates a net 9–10 lakh formal jobs were added in FY 25, largely in tech, logistics and green energy.Apprenticeships take rootHigh-end skills may hog the headlines, but apprenticeships are quietly shoring up the base. “For Telangana, the total number of apprentices stands at 51,019, up 10% this financial year,” says Dr Nipun Sharma, CEO, TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship.
His internal modelling shows apprenticeship adoption in GCCs rising 30–40% by FY27, especially once smaller GCCs cross the 40-employee threshold, which mandates apprentice quotas, and chase niche AI talent. According to Kaistha, campus pipelines tell a similar story with early-career professionals already occupying 42% of GCC roles nationwide, and tech-savvy fresher hiring set to grow into a central pillar of long-term capability building rather than a support function. She says the momentum behind fresher hiring is accelerating, with 42% of GCCs predicting that fresher hiring will grow by over 50% by 2030.
Business made easierThe new labour codes consolidate 29 laws into four and will significantly reduce compliance friction, notes Manoj Marwah, GCC leader (financial services), EY. “Single registration, consolidated annual returns and web-based inspections will bring ease of business and further fuel appetite for new GCCs.” Tighter immigration regimes abroad, rupee depreciation and India’s geopolitical alignment, he says, should keep offshore appetite high through 2026. Also, physical infrastructure is keeping pace. “2025 marked a pivotal moment for India’s corporate real-estate market as flexible workspaces emerged as a core enabler of enterprise growth,” says Paul Daniel Salnikoff, managing director & CEO, Executive Centre India.