AI agents are redefining GCCs
This article is authored by Arpita Srivastava, associate professor, XLRI-Xavier School of management, Jamshedpur.
Global Capability Centres (GCCs) have travelled a long way from being back-office engines of efficiency to becoming the nerve centres of innovation, analytics, and digital transformation for global enterprises. Yet, as we move deeper into 2025, they stand at the brink of another profound reinvention — one powered by a new kind of intelligence: Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents. This is not an incremental step in automation but a fundamental redesign of how work itself is organised, executed, and evolved within GCCs.
Traditional AI in GCCs has long been about support — a collection of tools built to assist human decisions. Chatbots answered queries, dashboards summarised performance, and robotic process automation streamlined repetitive tasks. These systems were reactive: they worked when commanded and stopped when their defined logic ran out. AI Agents, on the other hand, are proactive entities. They can observe, decide, and act — autonomously and continuously — without waiting for human prompts. This makes them not just tools, but digital coworkers capable of managing tasks, predicting needs, and optimising decisions in real time.
Picture a GCC where a procurement agent anticipates supplier delays before they happen and suggests alternate sourcing options automatically; where a finance agent detects an emerging cashflow issue and reallocates funds to maintain liquidity; or where an HR agent analyses employee sentiment data to identify attrition risks and proposes personalised retention plans. These are no longer speculative visions of the future — such pilots are already underway across advanced enterprises. The question now is not whether AI Agents will transform GCCs, but how quickly this transformation will reach maturity.
GCCs are uniquely positioned to lead this revolution for several reasons. They manage global-critical functions such as finance, HR, compliance, and supply chain — all of which are rich in structured data and ripe for intelligent automation. Their teams possess both technical expertise and domain depth, making them ideal custodians for testing, training, and refining AI-driven processes. Most importantly, GCCs provide a safe, controlled environment for global enterprises to experiment with new technologies before deploying them across larger ecosystems. In essence, GCCs are becoming the testbeds for AI-native operating models — environments where human intelligence and artificial intelligence collaborate seamlessly.
This shift is not about replacing people with machines; it’s about redistributing the nature of work. AI agents will replace tasks, not talent. As these digital coworkers take over routine decision-making, human roles will evolve toward higher-order functions — judgement, strategy, creativity, leadership, and ethics. The emphasis will move from “doing” to “designing” and from “execution” to “innovation.” Humans will guide, supervise, and partner with AI agents to shape outcomes that require emotional intelligence, contextual awareness, and moral reasoning — qualities machines cannot yet replicate.
However, the greatest challenge lies not in building the technology, but in building trust. For AI agents to thrive, GCCs will need to nurture a new organisational culture — one that encourages collaboration between humans and intelligent systems. Employees will have to see AI not as competition but as augmentation. This cultural shift will demand transparency in AI decision-making, robust governance mechanisms, and continuous upskilling to ensure teams remain confident and empowered in this new hybrid ecosystem.
For those enabling the GCC ecosystem — policymakers, consulting partners, and technology providers — the role is equally critical. They may not be designing the AI agents themselves, but they will define the environment in which those agents operate. This means crafting talent strategies that prepare the workforce for AI collaboration, designing governance frameworks that ensure ethical and responsible use, and building agile operational models that allow AI-native systems to integrate smoothly with human-led processes. The readiness of GCCs to adapt to these new frameworks will determine how successfully they lead global enterprise transformation in the coming years.
The transition to AI agents marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of GCCs. Just as automation once changed the rhythm of operational work, intelligent autonomy will now reshape its very architecture. The age of AI Agents is not a distant horizon — it has already begun. Across leading enterprises, digital coworkers are quietly demonstrating that decisions can be made faster, risks can be managed more intelligently, and innovation can emerge from collaboration between code and consciousness.
The question for GCCs, then, is not if they will embrace AI agents, but how fast they can prepare their people, systems, and culture to do so. The future of global capability is no longer about efficiency alone — it is about intelligence, adaptability, and shared agency between humans and machines. In this new equation, the smartest organisations will be those that understand one truth early: the future of work isn’t arriving. It’s already here.
This article is authored by Arpita Srivastava, associate professor, XLRI-Xavier School of management, Jamshedpur.
