Generative AI, Cloud, and Cybersecurity Set New Salary Benchmarks in India's GCCs Yet, talent supply remains the biggest bottleneck, for every ten open Generative AI roles, only one qualified engineer is available
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India's digital economy is entering a phase of hyper-growth, projected to expand twice as fast as the overall economy and contribute nearly twenty per cent of GDP by FY2030. This expansion is not only creating millions of new jobs but also reshaping compensation benchmarks, especially in Global Capability Centres (GCCs).
According to the Digital Skills & Salary Primer Report for FY2025–26 by TeamLease Digital, GCCs are set to play a decisive role, contributing more than one-fifth of new tech jobs in 2025 and expected to generate nearly one point two million of the four point seven million new roles projected by 2027. By then, India will host over two thousand one hundred GCCs employing three million professionals.
Generative AI roles lead the salary surge
Senior professionals in Generative AI Engineering and MLOps are now commanding salaries between 58–60 lacs per annum, with annual growth exceeding 18 per cent. These roles are central to the new AI-native operating models, which demand specialised skills such as Prompt Engineering, LLM Safety and Tuning, AI Orchestration, Agent Design, Simulation Governance, and AI Compliance and Risk Ops. Commenting on this shift, Neeti Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of TeamLease Digital, said, "GCCs alone now contribute 22–25 per cent of net new white-collar tech jobs and account for 30–35 per cent of AI hiring nationwide."
Cybersecurity and Data Engineering also remain strong career bets. Salaries in cybersecurity are projected to grow from 28 lacs to 33.5 lacs by FY2027, with senior experts earning as much as 55 lacs. Data engineering roles will rise from 23 lacs to 27 lacs, with top positions fetching up to 42 lacs.
Cloud computing is seeing steady growth as well, with salaries moving from 24 lacs to 28 lacs, while senior cloud architects can earn 45 lacs. In contrast, legacy IT support and maintenance roles remain stagnant at 12 lacs, reflecting the industry's shift to cloud-native and outsourced service models.
Wider Digital Transformation and Talent Gaps
The digital wave extends beyond core tech into BFSI, retail, healthcare, automotive, and semiconductors.
BFSI digital transformation is expected to grow from USD 108.5 billion in 2025 to USD 419.45 billion by 2034, while the semiconductor industry is set to double from USD 54 billion in 2025 to USD 108 billion by 2030.
Yet, talent supply remains the biggest bottleneck. For every 10 open Generative AI roles, only one qualified engineer is available. By 2026, the AI talent gap could reach 53 per cent, while cloud computing faces a demand-supply mismatch of 55–60 per cent.
"India's digital economy is projected to grow twice as fast as the overall economy and contribute one-fifth of GDP by 2029–30. This represents a global leadership opportunity, provided we address the 60 per cent talent gap in AI and the 55–60 per cent mismatch in cloud computing," Sharma said.
