Google’s GCC Warning Signal

Google's Agentic AI Repositioning Just Put India's GCCs On The Clock

By Dev Chandrasekhar

Polished demonstrations of the Gemini family of models, partner announcements, and the usual choreography.

The substance, however, was different. Enterprise AI today mostly sits in chat windows and embedded copilots: an employee types a question, the model answers, the employee acts on the answer. Useful, but the human is still doing the workflow. 

Google will stop selling such AI assistants — software that answers a question or completes a single task — and has started selling the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, a stack of tools that lets a company create, deploy, supervise and audit autonomous "agents". 

These act on their own, instead of waiting to be prompted task by task, across the company's systems for hours or days at a stretch. Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce, and other cloud providers are racing to assemble similar stacks.

It will not matter whose model is smartest, but who can give enterprises the best tools to deploy, supervise, and control armies of AI agents reliably and safely.

Very recently, Nasscom President Rajesh Nambiar told The Core that India’s GCC’s have “truly moved up the innovation curb.” 

“The new GCCs have been positioned as AI-first GCCs, which means that they've been able to do a lot more interesting work, own a broader problem for their enterprise, represent much more than probably some of the service providers,” Nambiar said. 

However, Google’s shift from AI copilots to autonomous agent operating systems could upend the economic logic of India’s GCC sector by replacing labour-arbitrage with cost-per-task automation. 

As global parents and consulting firms seize control of the agent architecture, governance and data layers, most Indian GCCs risk being reduced from strategic hubs to execution back offices unless they quickly move up the value chain into AI oversight, enterprise data and decision-making roles.

GCCs Face Agentic Reckoning

Five points stood out. First, Google is building a workforce operating system, not a chatbot platform. Second, the control layer — these rules decide which agents can act, on whose behalf, with what audit trail — is now more valuable than the underlying models, which are turning into commodities. 

Third, the next bottleneck is not AI capability but enterprise context: messy data, weak descriptive labels (technically called metadata), and no shared way for agents to fully understand what the data means. 

Fourth, AI pricing will shift from cost-per-prompt to cost-per-completed-task, breaking every pricing model anchored on human time. Fifth, Google has created a $750 million partner fund and put its own engineers alongside Accenture, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Capgemini, Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services, and HCL Tech to roll these AI agents inside their clients’ workflows.

Each shift hits directly India's Global Capability Centre (GCC) sector — the more than 2,000 offshore captive units employing close to two million people that multinationals run from India to handle finance, technology, customer operations and, increasingly, research.

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$6.6 billion

That is how much profit the Emirates Group made in 2025-26, even as military tensions involving Iran, Israel and the US disrupted commercial aviation across the Gulf region during the final stretch of its financial year.

By the Numbers: The Emirates Group’s profit before tax of $ 6.6 billion for FY26 was a 7% jump from the previous year. The group also posted record revenue of $ 41 billion and record cash assets of $ 16.2 billion. Emirates airline alone reported a profit before tax of $ 6.2 billion, retaining its position as the world’s most profitable airline.

Backdrop: Regional conflict and airspace disruptions linked to tensions involving Iran, Israel and the US affected airline operations across the Gulf after military activity escalated on February 28. Chairman and CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said Emirates and dnata quickly mobilised to protect operations and support customers while maintaining business continuity.

The airline said strong cash reserves enabled it to continue aircraft investments and expansion plans without resorting to “knee-jerk cost control measures.” Emirates also relied on fuel hedging strategies, using forward contracts tied to Brent crude and refining margins to limit exposure to oil price volatility and protect profitability during the period.

West Asia Watch

Diplomatic efforts to end the West Asia war gathered pace, with US President Donald Trump saying Washington had held “very good talks” with Iran over the last 24 hours and that a deal was “very possible”. 

Iran is currently reviewing a US proposal that sources told Reuters would formally end the conflict, though major sticking points remain unresolved, including Tehran’s nuclear programme and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Turning Point: Oil markets reacted strongly to signs of a potential ceasefire, with Brent crude falling around 3% intraday as traders bet the conflict may not significantly disrupt Gulf shipping routes.

Flashpoint: But even as diplomatic momentum builds, Israel widened its military operations. Israeli forces struck Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time since the Hezbollah ceasefire, targeting what it described as a commander from Hezbollah’s Radwan force. 

In related news, Indian seafarers stranded near Iranian waters told Reuters they endured nightly missile and drone attacks, severe food shortages and weeks of uncertainty after the Strait of Hormuz blockade disrupted commercial shipping.

QSR Recovery Gains Pace

After several weak quarters marked by inflation-hit demand, falling footfalls and intense competition from local eateries and cloud kitchens, India’s quick service restaurant (QSR) chains are finally showing signs of recovery. Consumers had pulled back on discretionary spending through much of 2024 and 2025, hurting players like McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King operators as margins came under pressure.

Context: Westlife Foodworld, which operates McDonald’s outlets in West and South India, reported a 56% jump in quarterly profit, helped by stronger demand for discounted meals and new store additions, in their Q4 results. Revenue rose 9%, while same-store sales growth came in at 1.5%. The company’s affordable McSavers+ meals and value-focused offerings helped attract budget-conscious consumers back to stores.

Forecast: However, challenges remain. Aggressive discounting continues to pressure margins, while higher input costs, including cooking gas shortages linked to Middle East tensions, could weigh on profitability in the coming quarters. Competition from local food brands and quick-delivery platforms also remains intense.

Tata's Very Public Problem

A rift is emerging at the top of the Tata Group over whether to take Tata Sons public, pitting two trustees of the Tata Trusts against chairman Noel Tata.

Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh are expected to propose at a May 8 board meeting that the $180 billion conglomerate's holding company prepare for a listing, arguing it would bring transparency and governance rigour. Noel, who heads the Trusts, wants Tata Sons to remain closely held, Bloomberg reported.

The Lead: The dispute has been forced into the open by a recent Reserve Bank of India directive expanding the definition of shadow lenders, effectively closing a loophole Tata Sons had used in 2022 to avoid listing. The RBI has informally conveyed it will not make an exception for the conglomerate and has already forwarded its view to the federal government.

The Shift: If an IPO becomes unavoidable, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which holds an 18.4% stake in Tata Sons and has publicly backed a listing, stands to be the biggest beneficiary.

Enfield Revs Up Andhra

Royal Enfield, part of Eicher Motors, is expanding to Andhra Pradesh, IT and electronics minister Nara Lokesh said in a post on X. This will be the company’s first move outside Tamil Nadu since it began operations.

The expansion follows a broader structural shift in the industry. The Core earlier reported how motorcycle segment OEMs are placing increasing strategic bets on the premium segment, a space where Royal Enfield holds dominant ground.

Overview: The company will set up a manufacturing unit and vendor park in Satyavedu, Tirupati district. It will invest Rs 2,200 crore in two phases, adding 900,000 units annually to its current capacity of 1.46 million units, and is expected to generate 5,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Setup: The move comes as Tamil Nadu navigates investor uncertainty under a new, untested government, with Andhra Pradesh aggressively positioning itself as an alternative manufacturing destination in the south.

How Long for Energy Supplies to Stabilise if the War Ends

On Episode 867 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Pranav Haldea, Managing Director at PRIME Database Group as well as Professor Ram Singh, Director of the Delhi School of Economics and member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India.

• How long will it take for energy supplies to stabilise if the war ends?

• India could be emerging from a Goldilocks economy, what does that mean?

• How Indian markets are getting more institutionalised

• Which is the world’s best selling drug now?