Hyderabad has rapidly emerged as one of India's premier destinations for Global Capability Centres. With 355 GCCs calling the city home, it has become a hub for innovation, technology, and strategic operations for multinational corporations. These centres are no longer just back-office support operations—they've evolved into critical innovation hubs driving cutting-edge AI and machine learning initiatives for their parent organisations worldwide.
But there's a significant challenge standing in the way of this growth: finding the right AI/ML talent to power these ambitions.
India is facing an acute AI/ML talent shortage that threatens to slow its technology leadership. According to recent industry reports, the country currently has approximately 416,000 skilled AI professionals, meeting only 49% of the current demand. By 2027, India will need 1.25 million AI/ML professionals, creating a shortage of over one million skilled workers.
The numbers paint a stark picture:
For Hyderabad's GCCs, this talent crunch creates unique challenges. These centres need professionals who can work with production-grade ML systems, handle massive datasets, and understand the nuances of model deployment and monitoring. They're not just looking for people who've completed online courses—they need engineers with deep, practical expertise in areas like computer vision, natural language processing, MLOps, and AI ethics.
The competition is fierce. Global tech giants offer deep pockets and brand recognition. Well-funded startups provide equity and ground-floor opportunities. Meanwhile, GCCs often find themselves competing for the same limited pool of qualified professionals. Adding to the challenge, the rise of remote work means Hyderabad professionals are now being courted by companies across the globe.
What makes AI/ML hiring even more complex is the diversity of requirements. One GCC might need computer vision specialists for autonomous vehicle projects. Another requires NLP experts for conversational AI. A third is searching for MLOps engineers who can bridge the gap between data science and production systems. Traditional recruitment approaches—posting on job boards and waiting for resumes—simply don't work in this specialised environment.
GCCs contributed 22.5% to India's AI and data-related hiring demand in 2024, making them major players in an already competitive market. Companies are responding by offering 15-20% higher salaries for GenAI roles compared to traditional AI/ML positions at the same experience level.
This is where Zyoin Group has positioned itself as a strategic partner for Hyderabad's GCCs. With over two decades of industry expertise, Zyoin has built a comprehensive approach to solving specialised technical hiring challenges. The firm combines AI-enabled tools with human expertise to address the unique requirements of AI/ML recruitment.
Zyoin's approach to GCC talent acquisition is built on several key pillars:
With a network of over 3 million professionals and a track record of closing 100,000+ roles, Zyoin has developed extensive connections across India's technology ecosystem. This network extends from research labs at institutions like IIIT-Hyderabad to product teams at major tech companies, and from startup AI teams to experienced consultants working on cutting-edge projects.
AI/ML hiring requires more than resume screening. Zyoin has developed evaluation frameworks that go beyond keywords to assess candidates on their understanding of production ML systems, their experience with real-time architectures, and their ability to handle practical challenges. When a GCC needs a senior machine learning engineer with expertise in recommendation systems, the assessment covers collaborative filtering approaches, content-based methods, A/B testing methodologies, and production deployment experience.
Zyoin has developed particular expertise in serving GCCs, understanding that these centres need professionals who can operate at the intersection of global standards and local execution. GCC employees often need to integrate seamlessly with international colleagues, understand cross-border regulations, and work within established enterprise ML infrastructure—requirements that differ significantly from startup or product company roles.
Beyond individual placements, Zyoin has positioned itself as a strategic advisor to GCCs in Hyderabad. This includes helping organisations understand market realities, benchmark compensation packages, refine job descriptions, and strategise about team structures. In a market where 14-16% of India's AI/ML hiring demand now comes from tier-2 cities, understanding these dynamics is critical.
The firm's AI-enabled approach allows it to process and analyse talent data at scale while maintaining the human judgment necessary for specialised technical roles. This hybrid model addresses one of the core challenges in AI/ML hiring: the need to move quickly while maintaining high-quality standards.
Hyderabad's position as a GCC hub continues to strengthen. Recent years have seen major new center launches, including facilities by Eli Lilly, Costco, Vanguard, McDonald's, and Heineken. These additions to the existing ecosystem of 355 GCCs create even more demand for specialised technical talent.
India's AI talent pool is growing at 40% year-on-year, and the country has created nearly 200,000 new high-quality jobs in GCCs in 2025 alone. The GCC industry is projected to reach $110 billion by 2030, employing 4.5 million people. However, this growth trajectory depends entirely on the ability to find and hire the right talent.
The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report notes that 63 in every 100 Indian workers will require training by 2030 to meet the demands of the AI-driven economy. This creates both challenges and opportunities for recruitment partners who can bridge the gap between available talent and required skills.
The AI/ML talent shortage isn't going away—it's evolving. The rise of Generative AI has created new specialisations and skill requirements. The increasing importance of AI ethics and governance is adding new dimensions to hiring needs. The shift toward edge computing and federated learning is creating demand for professionals with different technical backgrounds.
For recruitment partners like Zyoin Group, success requires continuous investment in understanding these emerging areas, building relationships with professionals at the cutting edge of AI/ML innovation, and helping GCC clients navigate the changing landscape.
In Hyderabad's competitive GCC ecosystem, having a recruitment partner with deep technical understanding, extensive networks, and specialised expertise in AI/ML hiring has become increasingly valuable. As GCCs continue to expand their innovation mandates and compete for limited talent, strategic recruitment partnerships are proving essential to growth and success.
The challenge is significant, but so is the opportunity. As India works to become a global AI powerhouse, Hyderabad's GCCs—supported by specialised recruitment expertise—are positioned to play a leading role in driving that transformation forward.
Hiring great talent is no longer about transactions — it’s about transformation.
Zyoin invites you to experience a new era of hiring — where every search is powered by data, every conversation adds value, and every placement builds your organization’s future.
Because with Zyoin, hiring smarter isn’t the future — it’s the standard.
