India's healthcare global capability centres (GCCs) are projected to generate 67,000 jobs in 2026, with roughly 93% of those openings targeting professionals with three to 12 years of experience, according to a report released on Friday, 23 October 2026 by staffing firm Quess Corp. The data signals a decisive tilt in India's GCC hiring toward specialised, mid-career talent over entry-level recruits.

Hiring Surge and the AI Factor

Healthcare GCC hiring in India nearly doubled in 2025, with demand surging 97.5% from 32,000 roles in 2024 to 63,200, according to the Quess Corp report. The growth trajectory is expected to continue into 2026, with artificial intelligence positioned as the fastest-scaling capability in the sector.

AI penetration in healthcare GCCs currently stands at approximately 60% of centres and is forecast to climb to 80–90% by 2030, as the technology moves deeper into clinical, research and development, operations, and product workflows. Demand for Data, Analytics and AI roles has risen 147.3% between 2023 and the 2026 forecast period — from 1,781 to 4,404 positions.

The Talent Gap Problem

Kapil Joshi, CEO of Quess IT Solutions, described the talent shortage as the sector's defining challenge. 'Hiring nearly doubled last year, and demand for AI and data talent has risen almost 150% since 2023. Yet the defining issue is the talent gap,' Joshi said.

India's healthcare GCC ecosystem comprises 155 organisations employing roughly 3.2 lakh professionals. Despite that installed workforce, specialist availability remains constrained. The report identified supply-to-demand ratios of just 1.6:1 in both Data, Analytics and AI and Market Access, Patient Services and Analytics — compared with an overall workforce-to-annual-demand ratio of 4.8:1.

This comes amid a broader shift away from traditional support functions toward specialised roles in AI, data analytics, clinical research, and regulatory affairs. Regulatory, quality and compliance demand more than doubled to 6,147 roles, while R&D, clinical development, biometrics and statistics demand rose 82.5% to 5,421 roles.

Experience Tiers and Entry-Level Decline

Of the 67,000 projected openings, nearly 38,391 are targeted at professionals with 3–7 years of experience, while another 23,856 are for those with 7–12 years. Notably, entry-level hiring demand declined 12.4% year-on-year in Q2 2026, even as overall quarterly hiring demand grew 6% — a trend that points to a structural preference for experience over freshers in this segment.

Bengaluru and Hyderabad Lead the Ecosystem

Bengaluru and Hyderabad together account for 62.2% of the existing healthcare GCC workforce and 58.4% of projected hiring demand in 2026. Bengaluru leads with an installed talent base of 1.09 lakh professionals and projected demand for 23,600 roles, driven by technology, digital health, AI, and medical-device engineering.

The concentration in these two cities underscores a geographic talent risk: if supply pipelines in Bengaluru and Hyderabad tighten, the entire sector's growth trajectory could face friction. Whether Tier-2 cities can absorb the overflow remains an open question that the industry will need to address in the near term.