Embracing the future: How AI is reshaping Global Capability Centers

Historically, GCCs have been synonymous with cost reduction and operational efficiency. However, the future demands a shift from transactional, cost-focused models to AI- and value-driven strategies. With the rise of Generative AI, machine learning (ML), and cloud computing, GCCs can now move beyond cost optimization and become engines of strategic innovation and business impact.

These technologies enable organizations to create connected, frictionless enterprises and foster better decision-making, real-time insights, and predictive analytics.

India Fuels the Global GCC Boom

Let’s take a look at India as an example to see how big the opportunity is. India is playing a central role in the GCC landscape, with a GCC market projected to reach a staggering $100 billion by 2029. The country is rapidly transforming from a cost-saving destination into a global hub for innovation. Indian GCCs are driving measurable business outcomes, positioning themselves as strategic partners in enterprise-wide transformation.

The Evolving GCC Operating Model

Until recently, GCC activities have been siloed by functions such as accounts payable (AP), accounts receivable (AR), and customer service. However, this approach is rapidly shifting with a significant portion of GCC activities organized across end-to-end processes, focusing on enterprise-wide data flows. This integrated approach, done right, fosters better collaboration, improves service delivery, and ensures that GCCs contribute to broader business outcomes.

In this new environment, organizations will need to better leverage data flows to create improved, streamlined, connected processes. With AI, data analytics, and Process Intelligence at the core of the GCC and the ability to turn this data into actionable insights, companies can predict trends, anticipate needs, and drive smarter decisions.

Process Intelligence: A Foundation for Business Transformation

To address the above developments, Process Intelligence is emerging as a cornerstone of successful GCC operations. By using Celonis Process Intelligence, organizations can gain a deeper understanding of their processes and take action to optimize them across departments. Process Intelligence enables GCCs to integrate data from multiple systems, uncover hidden insights, and use AI to align operations with strategic business objectives.

• Get the rundown on Celonis Process Intelligence here.

The Celonis Process Intelligence Platform uses process mining and augments it with business context to give SSCs a living digital twin of their business operation. With Process Intelligence, GCCs can identify bottlenecks, improve cross-functional processes, and enhance the customer experience.

Celonis Process Intelligence provides organizations with the tools to unlock insights from their processes and make AI effective for the enterprise. With Celonis, businesses can:

• Analyze complex, interconnected processes that span multiple geographies and departments.
• Optimize workflows and eliminate inefficiencies.
• Automate routine tasks to free up resources for more strategic activities.

AI + PI: Powering the Next Phase of GCC Innovation

Global Capability Centers (GCCs) are uniquely positioned to harness the combined power of artificial intelligence (AI) and Celonis Process Intelligence (PI) to drive innovation, operational excellence, and digital transformation — not only across horizontal functions like Finance and Supply Chain, but also across industries such as retail, travel, healthcare, and financial services. This cross-industry adoption is rapidly gaining momentum within the GCC landscape.

Key approaches for leveraging AI with Celonis:

• AI-Driven Optimization: Celonis’ innovation hub in Bengaluru, known as Celonis Garage, is dedicated to accelerating AI-driven process optimization for GCCs. By integrating Celonis’ process intelligence platform with AI, GCCs can rapidly identify inefficiencies, automate complex workflows, and optimize end-to-end business processes. This approach enables faster digital transformation and operational excellence across global enterprises.
• Driving Hyper-automation and Intelligent Automation: AI and automation have become essential to GCCs’ reinvention strategies. By combining Celonis’ process mining with AI-powered analytics and machine learning, GCCs can move beyond routine automation (such as RPA) to address complex, value-added activities-such as predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and proactive business trend forecasting. GCCs are even beginning to adopt agentic process automation, where AI agents autonomously manage and optimize workflows. This enables true end-to-end digital transformation across people, processes, and technology.
• Enhanced Process Compliance and Risk Management: AI can continuously monitor processes identified by Celonis for deviations from compliance policies or internal guidelines, flagging potential risks in real-time.
• Cost-Effective Innovation and Scalability: India’s operational cost advantage (20–30% lower than global hubs) and a vast, skilled workforce make it ideal for GCCs to scale AI and Celonis-powered solutions globally, driving both affordability and innovation.
• Focus on Sustainability and Digital Transformation: With climate change and sustainability as top priorities for Indian GCCs, AI and process mining can help organizations monitor environmental impacts, optimize resource usage, and drive enterprise-wide digital transformation
• Talent Transformation: With more than two-thirds of GCCs in India actively upskilling teams for generative AI adoption, there is a strong focus on building capabilities that blend AI expertise with process intelligence. This ensures that GCCs have the talent needed to implement and manage advanced AI-driven automation and analytics solutions.

• Domain-specific Use Cases:
  • Finance & Accounting: AI-powered anomaly detection in invoice processing, predictive analysis for cash flow optimization, and intelligent automation of reconciliation processes.
  • Supply Chain Management: AI for predicting supply chain disruptions, optimizing inventory levels, and automating procurement processes.
  • Customer Service: AI-driven chatbots with process context, personalized customer journey optimization, and predictive analysis of customer satisfaction.
  • IT Operations: AI for automated incident management based on process flow analysis, predictive maintenance of IT infrastructure, and intelligent resource allocation.

• Industry-specific Use Cases:
  • Retail: Personalize shopping experiences, optimize inventory and supply chains, and improve customer engagement using AI-powered process insights.
  • Healthcare: Implement AI-driven automation for better patient care, reduced inefficiencies, and accelerated drug discovery.
  • Travel: Streamline booking processes, enhance customer service, and optimize operational workflows using process mining and AI automation.
  • Banking/Finance: Improve compliance, fraud detection, automated auditing and customer service through intelligent process automation.

A New Era for Commercial Models: Shifting from FTE-Based to Value-Based Pricing

As GCCs shift from a cost-cutting model to a value-creation strategy, we are also seeing a fundamental change in commercial models. Traditional FTE-based pricing is giving way to outcome-based pricing models that are more aligned with the value delivered by the service provider. Under these models, service providers are incentivized to deliver higher-quality solutions and innovative ideas, with compensation linked to tangible business outcomes like cost savings, revenue growth, and customer satisfaction. As GCCs continue to evolve into innovation hubs, there is an increasing opportunity for co-innovation partnerships. Organizations can work together to develop new solutions, technologies, and business models that drive growth and create value for both parties.

Celonis provides the data and insights needed to track and measure these outcomes. By leveraging Celonis and its powerful suite of AI-powered tools, GCCs can identify new opportunities for innovation, streamline operations, and accelerate digital transformation.

Organizations can demonstrate the ROI of their transformation initiatives in a data-driven fashion, making it easier to negotiate performance-based contracts and build long-term partnerships. Celonis AI tools — like Process Copilots and AI-powered apps and agents — are designed to enable organizations to co-create solutions that drive business value. These AI-powered solutions help unlock opportunities within business processes, giving GCCs and their partners the insights they need to innovate and deliver results faster.

Celonis in Action: Driving Value within GCCs

Now, let's take a look at how Celonis can be used to optimize business processes, improve efficiency, and drive value within GCCs:

• Discovery: Start with use cases that generate value fast across core processes
• Expansion: Quickly scale overall business operations, adding additional processes, geographies, and business units with minimal effort.
• Continuous optimization as a service: Celonis acts as a value aggregator, with the Process Intelligence Graph integrating AI into different workflows, providing actionable insights that help optimize business outcomes.

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As a trusted advisor, Partners can use Celonis to map processes, uncover value opportunities, and accelerate transformation via their clients’ GCCs. By focusing on value-driven engagements and using AI-powered tools, Partners can deliver results that directly align with their client’s strategic objectives, such as growth, innovation, and customer satisfaction.