The tech services company argues that GCCs must move beyond delivery and become strategic hubs for AI, product development, and digital transformation.
Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are now increasingly being asked to do more than provide cost-efficient technology support. Trigent Software is calling for a shift towards innovation-led GCCs, where engineering teams have greater ownership of products, platforms, and enterprise transformation.
For years, several GCCs were built around a straightforward model: headquarters defined priorities, while offshore teams handled execution. The approach helped companies expand tech operations, access skilled talent and improve efficiency. That model, however, is facing pressure as businesses rely more heavily on AI, data engineering, and digital products. As per Trigent, traditional measures such as delivery speed, cost savings, and operational scale are no longer sufficient to determine whether a GCC is creating long-term value.
AI is changing the GCC operating model.
AI projects require close coordination between data specialists, engineers, product teams, and business leaders. When these functions operate separately, successful pilots can struggle to progress into larger, enterprise-wide systems. Trigent argues that GCCs need stronger connections between these disciplines.
Giving teams the responsibility for developing and evolving platforms, rather than simply executing assigned tasks, could allow knowledge and expertise to build within the centre over time. This represents a broader shift in the role of technology centres, from supporting business strategy to taking part in shaping it.
Product ownership becomes more important.
In a delivery-focused structure, major product and platform decisions often remain with teams at headquarters. The GCC executes against those decisions. A more mature model places product management, engineering and architecture closer together and gives teams responsibility for systems throughout their lifecycle. Trigent describes this as a move from transactional delivery towards shared accountability and enterprise-level capability.
India continues to play an important role in the global GCC ecosystem, supported by its large technology talent pool and established digital-services industry. Trigent estimates that India’s GCC sector could exceed $110 billion by 2030, with more than 2,500 centres employing nearly 4.5 million professionals.
As GCCs expand, the focus is therefore shifting from simply increasing headcount to building deeper expertise, leadership and decision-making capabilities. The emerging model suggests that the next phase of GCC growth will depend less on how much work a centre can process and more on how much strategic value it can create.
