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Business Standard
20-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Evolve or perish: Agentic AI set to disrupt software testing roles
The Indian IT sector currently has over 375,000 active professionals in testing and QA/QC functions across experience levels, according to data sourced from specialist staffing firm Xpheno Avik Das Bengaluru Listen to This Article Artificial intelligence (AI) and agentic AI technologies are triggering a major shakeup in software testing, one of the most traditionally structured functions within the software development life cycle (SDLC). With AI-driven automation increasingly replacing repetitive and rule-based testing tasks, quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) roles stand the risk of becoming obsolete if they do not evolve. The Indian information technology (IT) sector currently has over 375,000 active professionals in testing and QA/QC functions across experience levels, according to data sourced from specialist staffing firm Xpheno. This talent pool, however, has remained largely stagnant, with net growth of under
Time of India
18-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India sees growth in mid-market GCCs
Representative image BENGALURU: India is experiencing an uptick in mid-market global capability centres (GCCs). The country witnessed over 140 greenfield GCCs come up during the past 30 months, according to data from HR consultancy firm Xpheno's research. These GCCs initially planned for 70,000 positions, with individual centres targeting between 50 to 3,000 roles. A recent Nasscom-Zinnov report showed that India has over 480 mid-market GCCs , with 210,000 professionals employed. Mid-market GCCs are capability centres set up by mid-sized firms with annual revenue ranging from $100 million to $1 billion. They represent 27% of all GCCs and 22% of total GCC units in the country. In the last five years alone, more than 110 new facilities were established, representing approximately 35% of all new GCC units in India within this period. 480+ centres, 2.1 lakh employed This contrasts with the larger GCCs in terms of operational scale but not in the ability to deliver high-quality services and innovation. India will be home to over 120 new mid-market GCCs by 2026, according to research by Bengaluru and US-based ANSR. The majority of mid-tier GCCs in India originate from North America (60%). European nations contribute 25% of these centres, led by Germany, the UK, Ireland, Spain, and France. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trading CFD dengan Teknologi dan Kecepatan Lebih Baik IC Markets Mendaftar Undo The Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Singapore, accounts for 10% of these establishments. Some of the mid-market GCCs that entered India in the last 2-3 years include Revolut, Papa Johns, Raksul, and Outbrain, among others. These centres are primarily situated in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. Kedar Pathak, GCC talent specialist at Xpheno, said that tier-1 locations provide superior talent availability, varied skill sets, and facilities. Although tier-2 locations are preparing for future growth, they remain secondary choices for GCC establishments. Modern GCCs have evolved beyond technological hubs to encompass diverse business operations. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Mint
09-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
GCCs prefer hiring leaders from peers than IT services companies
Backend technology centres of the world's largest companies are increasingly hiring senior executives from peers as compared with information technology (IT) services companies, indicating a preference for innovative work, domain knowledge and better understanding of captive offices. A little over a third–or 36%–of executives with more than eight years of work experience hired by global capacity centres or GCCs came from rivals in the year ended March 2025, according to a report by Xpheno, a Pune-based staffing firm. That's an increase from 28% in the year March 2023. By comparison, the share of middle and senior executives hired from the IT services sector during the period shrank from 50% to 40%. IT products and startups account for the remaining hires by GCCs, according to the findings based on a study of the 'top' 120 GCCs in India that employ 1.35 million people–or over three-fourths of the total active workforce of such centres. The preference for senior executives from within the GCCs marks a significant shift when more global roles of Fortune companies are shifting to India. According to IT industry lobby National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), there are 6,500 global roles in India for the country's 1,760 global capability centres (GCCs). This number is expected to jump almost fivefold in the next five years to 30,000. Also read | India office Reits report higher FY25 income, leasing on strong GCC demand "GCCs, which are increasingly looking for more innovation, want talent that has been involved in innovative work in the past rather than those who deliver transactional services. Some GCCs have groomed leaders who have led such transformations, leading to the rise in hiring from peer GCCs," said Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno. 'The mandate of some of the tenured and new GCCs has moved to transformation and innovation. So culturally and operationally, that's a different DNA," he said. 'Hence, hiring leaders from these GCCs experiences is a culturally better fit and gets them to a quicker operational speed." More global focus GCCs are back-end offices of top foreign companies such as Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Boeing and Walmart that handle work related to IT, sales, human resources, marketing, and supply chain management. More than 875, or half of the country's GCCs, are based in Bengaluru, while Hyderabad has about 355. The rest are located in cities such as Delhi NCR, Pune, and Chennai. Nasscom estimates the number of Indian GCCs will hit 2,200 by March 2030, with a market size of $105 billion. To be sure, the bulk of the workforce in such centres still comes from IT services companies. These captives hire in two primary ways: freshers from colleges during campus placements, and lateral hires from IT outsourcers, other GCCs, startups, and software product companies. While GCCs and IT services companies cover similar roles, there is a difference in their approach, which is reflected in hiring preference. Read this | Captive concerns: Why Cognizant has called out the risk from GCCs 'Being in the GCC, you think like the parent company and are a lot more business-focused than in an IT services firm, where you concentrate in performing a piece of work that has been given to you by the customer," said Aveek Mukherjee, co-founder of Gloplax. 'The responsibilities of senior GCC managers are lot more global and take into account all the constituents including strong people skills, specialised in-house capabilities, and cross-functional expertise." In the past, leadership switches at GCCs were not just limited to executives of the same industry. Jaideep Agarwal took over as the India global business solutions (GBS) leader for Warner Bros. Discovery in February 2023. He had served as the managing director of Goldman Sachs in India until June 2022, before serving as an independent consultant. Sirisha Voruganti was appointed as the chief executive of Lloyds Tech Centre India in July 2023. She earlier served as the managing director of JCPenney in India. Contextual knowledge However, Viswanathan K.S., digital transformation advisor and former Nasscom vice-president of industry initiatives, said executives from captive centres and those from the same sector come with more contextual knowledge than those from IT services companies. 'IT services companies prepare people as technologists, whereas GCCs prefer those with tech, domain and contextual knowledge," said Viswanathan K.S., digital transformation advisor and former Nasscom vice-president of industry initiatives. 'Suppose a person is being hired for the role of a delivery manager in a retail outlet. They must not just have technical knowledge, but also have a sense of warehousing, loyalty programs, and groceries in general." At least half a dozen executives have taken up leadership roles in GCCs of the same domain in the past three years. And this | The boutique consulting firms powering India's next GCC boom Naveen Gullapalli took over as managing director of Amgen India's technology and innovation centres in December 2024. He previously headed the global business solutions team at Novartis, a company where he spent 13 years. Arindam Banerrji took over as India head of State Street in October 2023 after a five-year stint at Wells Fargo, where he last served as its executive vice-president and managing director for India and Philippines. "Any hiring preference is truly driven by the role and the required skill sets," said Mukherjee. 'A GCC leader when looking for talent, especially at senior levels, would place greater value on the in-depth firsthand experience gained by a delivery/product manager within a GCC construct. This preference gets stronger when it comes to hiring for niche roles with experience in the same industry or domain-specific capabilities," said Mukherjee. Intellectual 'echo chamber' Still, hiring senior executives familiar with GCCs could pose a different challenge. "What appears as comfortable familiarity masks a deeper challenge: when the same leadership talent circulates between centers with only the logo changing, we risk creating an intellectual echo chamber that values predictability over transformation," said Kaushik Srinivasan, chief executive of KaN Associates. He added that GCCs could work around this nuance a little better. And read | Culture is the most important aspect of how you run a GCC: Tesco's Sumit Mitra 'The most visionary GCCs recognize that while contextual understanding is valuable, true innovation often comes from integrating perspectives from product companies and consulting firms that challenge established paradigms," he said. 'The centres that thrive will be those that balance the safety of proven GCC experience with the disruption of fresh industry perspectives."
Time of India
29-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
The AI impact: Rethink, rework, reboot
Executives say the traditional relationship between headcount and revenue growth will no longer be linear as AI boosts employee productivity. AI is nudging the largest IT companies as well as the engineers, to go back to the drawing board and rethink skills and strategy. Prachi Verma, Himanshi Lohchab & Annapurna Roy decode Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The rapid ascent of artificial intelligence and automation is reshaping India's technology hiring landscape, with entry-level workers getting impacted the most. As AI takes over basic testing, coding, and web development tasks, engineering graduates may no longer be the bulk pick for IT firms. Instead, some Tier-3 colleges are noting enhanced selective recruitment with added rounds of screening and assessments during placements. The bottom layer of the hiring pyramid is shrinking with IT companies reporting lowest-ever fresh hires, as they sharpen focus on tapping skilled mid-level AI/ML say the traditional relationship between headcount and revenue growth will no longer be linear as AI boosts employee productivity. The scenario is further compounded by an accelerated talent drain towards global capability centres (GCCs) which offer lucrative salaries and experts believe that as AI automation and sophistication grows, fewer people may be needed for entry-level tasks. IT services firms hired between 60,000 and 70,000 freshers in FY24—the lowest intake in two decades—according to FY20 and FY25, while revenues at seven large-cap and 10 mid-cap IT firms collectively surged by around 60%, their headcount expanded by 33%, showed data shared by specialist staffing firm Xpheno. At the same time, for every rupee spent on employees, companies were generating `1.77 in revenue in 2020, which climbed onlymarginally to `1.82 in 2025, the data means that productivity shifts are not visible evidently yet, though this may change soon. C Vijayakumar, MD undefined what we saw in the last 30 years is a fairly linear scaling…. we have been challenging our teams on how you can deliver twice the revenue with half the people,' he said. 'As AI takes up more rule-based entry-level work, it would be wise to assume that the diamond structure will only get further sharper,' noted Kamal Karanth, cofounder at Xpheno. 'The new talent distribution structure does and will have a big-fat-middle layer.'Educational institutions are also experiencing a transition in campus placements, especially among IT firms who are more 'cautious' and rigorous with their hiring processes. 'Campuses are witnessing delayed offer rollouts, reduced intake and a growing emphasis on pre-placement internships/skill assessments as filters,' said Manoj Kumar Pandey, director at Amity School of Engineering & Technology. 'The demand for entry-level roles is declining. Instead of bulk hiring, firms are now opting for selective recruitment, targeting people with niche skills,' said largest IT company TCS highlighted that 40% of its new hires are trained in advanced technologies—up from 17% last year. And half of lateral hires possess digital or Gen AI experience, the Tata Group company said in an analysts' call earlier this month. On their part, students are also beefing up the resumes to fetch higher salary packages. They are contributing to open-source projects, building AI models, and publishing GitHub repositories. 'Companies are expecting the students to help fields to handle AI tools. However, programming skills are still a must have. AI skills are considered essay flair on the basic skills,' said Ebin M Manuel, placement officer, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, in Kottayam, Pandey said earlier, solving a few coding questions could have been considered sufficient for entry-level hires. However, companies are currently focusing on system design during technical rounds, which was not the norm previously. Recruiters are adding real-time debugging or whiteboard sessions. 'Many organisations are introducing complex tests,' said Maya Nair, ED, Elixir Consulting at global talent firm GI Group Holding. 'Emphasis is being given to demonstrating problem-solving skills and critical thinking.' But others believe hiring at lower levels will continue unabated to manage costs as margins are under unfolding scenario is compounded by a rising skill gap. 'The rapid growth of GCCs has resulted in a talent drain from traditional IT firms, particularly in Tier-1 cities. There's a shortage of 200,000 skilled professionals in areas like AI, cloud, and cybersecurity,' said Krishna Vij, VP at TeamLease Digital. Staffing firm Quess says emerging tech roles are being offered 30-50% higher salaries in GCCs than in IT services companies, with entry-level roles offering up to `11.8 lakh annually. 'As the GCC workforce in India is projected to reach 2.5 million by 2030, IT firms must evolve from being service providers to strategic talent destinations,' said Kapil Joshi, CEO at Quess IT Staffing.
Economic Times
28-04-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
IT firms may need to up hiring to retain edge as GCCs come fishing
Despite the uncertain environment, IT services companies may need to step up hiring in the long term to protect against talent drain to global capability centres (GCCs), said growth of GCCs has driven IT services attrition rates to as high as 16%. In 2024, GCCs hired about 110,000 people, a sharp increase from 60,000 in the previous year. Nearly 53% of recruits in greenfield GCCs were from IT services companies, data from Xpheno showed. GCCs hired nearly 10 times more talent than Indian IT majors in 2024-25, according to Quess, causing 20-25% lateral movement. Around 40% of IT firms are adopting remote and hybrid work models to tap into talent from tier-2 cities and overseas markets, TeamLease said.'IT services firms have no choice but to refill these attrited resources because they are billable and directly impact revenues,' said Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno. 'While lateral hiring is costly, companies are increasingly leaning on freshers, even though they take time to become billable.' This explains why Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) may have remained committed to hire 40,000 freshers in this fiscal, while Infosys has set the target at 20,000. However, they will look to decrease their subcontractor costs, which have already declined 11% over the past eight quarters, according to experts. Chief human resources officer Milind Lakkad said TCS onboarded 42,000 graduates in 2024-25, a notch higher than the targeted 40,000. 'And FY26 number will be similar or a little higher,' he said. 'We expect our overall (fresher hiring) numbers (in FY26) to be significantly higher than what we did in FY25,' said Ramachandran Sundararajan, chief people officer, HCLTech, adding that the company seeks to add about 2,000-3,000 freshers each quarter. It added 7000 freshers in Wipro, which increased fresher intake by 10,000 last fiscal, said it will keep a close watch on the macro and business environment before committing to increased recruitment. 'We don't want a situation where we onboard people and we don't have challenges of deployment,' said its chief human resources officer Saurabh Govil, referring to last year's onboarding delays by the compensation, global exposure and greater ownership of business functions have caused a 20–25% lateral movement of talent from IT services, said Kapil Joshi, CEO of Quess IT are attracting top talent with higher pay and better career progression, said Karthikeyan K, director – permanent recruitment at Adecco. 'The cost of an empty seat in a GCC is 40% higher than in a traditional IT firm. More than 30% of employees who resign from large IT firms are joining GCCs,' he and mid-level candidates are achieving faster salary growth by switching to GCCs, he said, adding, 'The average tech salary has crossed Rs 18 lakh per annum, with GCCs offering 10-15% higher pay for senior roles.'According to Quess, salaries in emerging tech roles such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and cybersecurity are now 30-50% higher in GCCs than in IT services, with entry-level roles offering up to Rs 11.8 lakh annually. 'As the GCC workforce in India is projected to reach 2.5 million by 2030, IT firms must evolve from being service providers to strategic talent destinations,' Quess' Joshi aggressive expansion among GCCs 'has led to longer hiring cycles, rising attrition and project delays for IT service providers', said Roop Kaistha, regional APAC managing director at talent acquisition firm response, IT companies are rethinking their long-term strategy. 'Retention tools like golden handcuffs, leadership development programs, and retention bonuses are coming into play,' said Adecco's Karthikeyan.
