
Global Capability Centers (GCCs) are at a crossroads. They’re no longer just cost-cutting engines built on wage arbitrage—they must drive real enterprise value. The old playbook of offshoring massive teams is hitting its limits. Today’s enterprises need AI-powered, human-led, globally optimized operations that don’t just cut costs—they accelerate innovation, agility, and risk reduction.
● According to ISG Research, nearly 25% of enterprises are planning to establish a new GCC in the next 18 months.
● 40% of existing GCCs are expanding their footprint, driven by the need for better control, AI-enabled work, and innovation-led efficiencies.
● But here’s the kicker: 70% of GCCs fail to meet expectations due to legacy processes, lack of AI adoption, and failure to integrate effectively with enterprise objectives.
GCCs must evolve—or risk becoming obsolete. The future belongs to AI-powered, human-led, globally optimized operations that don’t just cut costs, but actively accelerate innovation, improve business agility, and reduce enterprise risk.
We'll use the term "Global Capability Center" here, often implying that work is being done from a lower-cost location (like India or the Philippines) compared to the US, the UK, or Western Europe. Now that AI is delivering more value, location still matters (a lot), and a GCC should still deliver savings from wage arbitrage—including from remote work—but AI enhancement puts a new value lever in play. Delivery location will matter less tomorrow than it did yesterday.
The old GCC model? A cost arbitrage factory. The new model? A Generative Capability Center to the POWER of AI (GCCAI) that’s an engine for business impact.
AI is already starting to upend the work GCCs have been traditionally designed to do—IT operations, business processes, HR functions, customer support—so if a GCC isn’t embedding AI into its core, it’s going to get left behind.
1. IT & Software Engineering → AI-driven development, AI-powered testing, and self-healing infrastructure are changing the game for enterprise IT.
2. HR & Workforce Management → AI is automating recruiting, onboarding, and compliance tracking, reducing time-to-productivity.
3. Business Process Optimization → AI-powered automation is taking over claims processing, customer service, finance functions, and more.
This shift is just getting started. This isn’t just about old-school automation. It’s about unlocking AI arbitrage—where the combination of AI + human expertise creates exponential value from velocity, transparency, process quality, and cost reduction.
The biggest mistake? Assuming GCCs will look the same in five years. They won’t. Enterprises that find themselves stuck with obsolete, low-value operations will watch wistfully from the side of the road as competitors accelerate with AI-powered execution.
This is the moment for GCC leaders and decision makers to step up. AI—including myriad specific “agents” that supplement humans doing specific tasks and workflows—isn’t here to replace GCCs—it’s here to supercharge them. But success requires a new model, new metrics, and new mindsets.
Here are nine key characteristics of the emerging future-state GCCAI.
1. Keep Humans in the Loop of Every Critical Workflow. AI is powerful, particularly as agents get increasingly capable, but human expertise remains the foundation. AI doesn’t make judgment calls, challenge assumptions, ask new questions, or drive creative problem-solving—people do. The best GCCs will have humans orchestrating AI-powered workflows, ensuring compliance, and maintaining strategic oversight. An AI-powered GCC can provide real-time insights that enable more accurate, timely, and informed HUMAN decisions.
2. Embed Foundational AI + Last-Mile AI. The best GCCs will leverage foundational AI platforms (think: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Mistral, Llama, etc.) for broad automation, and have customized Last-Mile agentic AI solutions to fine-tune workflows for specific business needs and technology environments (like Ascendion's own AVA+).
3. Commercials Include AI-Powered Arbitrage: Working from lower cost locations—from across the globe or across your state for wage arbitrage—will still be an important value lever, but AI arbitrage is the new differentiator. The ability to optimize cost, speed, quality, and transparency through AI-driven efficiencies will define the next wave of GCC success.
4. Set Up An Agent Foundry For AI At Scale. GCCs need an Agent Foundry—a team dedicated to building, monitoring, and managing the swarm of AI agents that optimize IT, business processes, and customer interactions. Every company evolves—people, tech stacks, processes—are never static. Agents need to evolve with demand, so every GCC will a “foundry” so that agentic workflows evolve along with the company.
5. Ensure Co-Innovation: Human Collaboration Remains Key. AI doesn’t innovate. People using AI innovate. The best GCCs will be co-innovation hubs—places where enterprise leaders, AI engineers, and business strategists collaborate to drive impact. AI-powered tools remove friction from efficient cross functional collaboration by breaking down geographical barriers, enabling teams across different regions to communicate and collaborate along intelligent workflows, improving productivity and velocity.
6. Demand New Commercial Models: Process & Output-Based. The days of traditional T&M pricing are numbered. Leading GCCs will shift toward AI-Arbitrage commercial models—billing based on process efficiencies and business outcomes, not headcount.
7. Don’t Go It Alone: Success Takes An Ecosystem. Next-gen GCCs will integrate deeply with AI ecosystem partners—AWS, Microsoft, ServiceNow, Salesforce, other business platforms, and service partners—to extend AI-powered capabilities.
8. Hubs & Nodes: The New Operating Model. Next-gen GCCs will deliver cost control and scalable execution by combining hubs of remote or near-shore teams—including remote workers—with smaller but centralized client-accessible nodes for strategic collaboration and co-innovation.
9. Manage Risk & Compliance: The AI Trust Factor. AI-driven workflows can bring real and perceived risks related to security, compliance, and ethics. The next-gen GCC must lead in AI governance for responsible, transparent AI so threats are detected, data remains safe, compliance is more streamlined, and errors reduced. Strong governance—by humans—is non-negotiable to secure trust, ensure regulatory compliance, and protect organizational reputation.
This isn’t just about tweaking an old model—this is a fundamental shift in how enterprises operate. GCCs that embrace AI aren’t just making incremental improvements; they’re redefining global operations and how enterprise work gets done.
For executives making strategic and budget decisions, this means AI-powered GCCs will give leaders a competitive edge. Investing in AI-driven operations will ultimately separate market leaders from laggards.
GCCs will no longer remain lower cost "back offices." They’ll evolve into AI-powered growth engines. Seamless integration and continuous innovation ensures service quality, scalability, and faster adaptation. Company leaders who recognize this today will create a new model for how business is done.