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Artificial intelligence penetration in India's retail Global Capability Centres (GCC) has doubled, yet AI professionals still represent fewer than one in 20 employees, according to a report by TeamLease Digital. The findings highlighted a stark capability mismatch even as India scales its presence globally, holding 180 centres and over 270,000 professionals.
As per the report, AI workforce penetration has more than doubled from 2.1 per cent in 2022 to 4.8 per cent in 2025, and is forecast to reach 7.2 per cent in 2026. Yet the senior AI talent base remains thin, only 320 professionals with 8+ years of AI experience exist across all 180 Retail GCCs, an average of fewer than two per centre. The country leads AI penetration ahead of other global capability centre destinations such as Poland, Germany, Mexico, and the Philippines. The report stated that 90 per cent of hirings in the last 12 months came from outside the retail sector, competing directly with IT services, product companies, and consulting firms for digital talent. Because of this competition, AI and machine learning talent commands specialist premium salaries, rising to 2.0x the market median at the three-to-six-year experience band. Elaborating on the findings of the report, Neeti Sharma, CEO, TeamLease Digital, said, "India's Retail GCC story has moved decisively past the conversation about scale. India is increasingly becoming the place where AI-led retail strategy gets built and owned, not just executed." "But the same data carries a warning," Sharma added. "With just 320 senior AI professionals across 180 GCCs and more than half of all AI talent concentrated in one city, we are looking at a capability concentration risk that most GCC leadership teams haven't formally priced in." Bengaluru alone holds 54 per cent of India's retail capability centre AI talent pool. Meanwhile, the sector's talent war extends well beyond retail boundaries. Of the 28,500 professionals hired in the past year, the vast majority came from outside the sector. "The organisations that will lead the next five years are the ones that elevate their AI mandate now, not at the next budget cycle," Sharma stated. "India has earned the right to be global retail's centre of gravity. What happens next depends entirely on how deliberately we build the senior AI bench to match that ambition." The report identified AI talent scarcity, location concentration, and leadership bottlenecks as the principal risks to the next phase of growth. Compensation is increasingly linked to scarce capability rather than tenure. At senior levels, compensation crosses Rs 1.2 crore at the 15-plus year band for the ten per cent of talent that possesses both domain and AI skills, placing the upper tier close to or above the USD 100,000 equivalent mark in India. (ANI)
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