We invited Mohammed Anzy S, Vice President and MD of Guidewire India, for an exclusive Q&A to share his perspectives on the evolving role of India’s insurance-focused GCCs. In this insightful conversation, Anzy unpacks how GCCs are moving beyond operational support to become strategic co-innovation partners—driving AI, cloud-native transformation, and global product leadership from India.
GCCs have historically played a back-office role in enterprise operations. What, in your view, are the defining shifts that are positioning modern GCCs—especially in regulated sectors like insurance—as agile centres of innovation and strategic value creation?
Anzy: Global Capability Centers (GCCs) are evolving from mere development hubs to innovation and transformation engines, especially in regulated sectors like insurance. They incorporate domain expertise into key functions such as product engineering, claims automation, and AI-driven underwriting, influencing customer journeys and risk frameworks. Cloud, AI, and data are foundational, with India-based GCCs leading digital re-platforming, automation, and analytics. GCCs are leveraging local ecosystems—startups, academia, digital infrastructure—to develop globally relevant, context-aware solutions. India centers now host product managers, architects, and engineers who co-own global mandates, impacting UX, platform modernization, and regulation.
The insurance industry demands both regulatory rigour and technological agility. How are technology teams in India-based GCCs balancing compliance with experimentation—especially around AI and cloud-native innovation?
Anzy: Balancing compliance and innovation is a skill many India-based GCCs have cultivated, especially in insurance, where compliance builds trust. Our teams integrate governance into innovation, whether creating AI-driven models or cloud platforms, emphasizing responsible engineering. Built-in compliance merges expertise and auditability, with secure practices, privacy principles, and regulator engagement, ensuring ethics are never compromised. India’s community-driven approach, through forums like nasscom, fosters sharing, understanding, and confident scaling. Constraints become catalysts, enabling GCCs to innovate ethically and confidently.
Across the insurance value chain—claims, underwriting, fraud detection, and customer engagement—AI adoption is accelerating. What are some of the real-world use cases where you see AI moving the needle in terms of business impact?
Anzy: AI is no longer on the sidelines; it is at the heart of transforming insurance. In claims, underwriting, fraud detection, and customer engagement, AI, through touchless processing, accelerates tasks that used to take days to just minutes. In underwriting, machine learning models help dynamically assess risk, enabling hyper-customized products and faster decisions. In fraud detection, AI uncovers patterns and outliers that humans might overlook, preventing losses and maintaining trust. In customer engagement, conversational AI and predictive analytics are shifting the experience from reactive to proactive. Moving from transactional to relational, and from retrospective to predictive, AI allows insurers to rethink how they serve. While everyone talks about AI and the many AI use cases being rapidly deployed, the key differentiator is how we incorporate trust and ethics into the overall AI strategies.
Having led enterprise tech teams and built startup ecosystems, what cultural and structural changes do GCCs need to adopt to become true co-innovation partners to the business?
Anzy: To become co-innovation partners, GCCs need to shift from merely executing tasks to becoming centers of innovation. This involves fostering a culture that supports entrepreneurial mindsets, is comfortable with ambiguity, challenges assumptions, and maintains a sharp focus on customer outcomes. Structurally, it requires integrating product ownership, design thinking, and agility. Co-location with leaders, outcome metrics, and rapid feedback are crucial. GCCs should co-lead transformation by trusting teams with a clear vision, enabling them to become true co-innovation partners to the business rather than just carrying out commands.
The regulatory environment is changing, and so is the talent market. How do you see India’s GCC landscape evolving over the next 3–5 years, particularly for global product companies?
Anzy: India’s GCCs are at a pivotal moment. These centers are co-owning outcomes, creating IP, and spearheading transformation, all supported by India’s expanding talent pool, focus on products, and expertise in AI and cloud technologies. The key to success lies in empowering talent through autonomy and leadership, while navigating evolving regulations and cultural challenges. As GCCs continue to grow, it is essential to maintain a startup spirit. The true value lies in empowering teams, streamlining governance, and fostering a strong culture of innovation. AI provides a unique opportunity to drive the next generation of product development.
Guidewire serves over 540 P&C insurers worldwide. From your vantage point, leading India operations, what unique capabilities or innovations are being shaped out of India that contribute to Guidewire’s global engineering and customer success efforts?
Anzy: The team at Guidewire India stands at the forefront of innovation, playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of insurance technology. We specialize in advanced platform engineering, cutting-edge cloud accelerators, and insightful data products that transform complex insights into practical, actionable solutions. Our contributions extend far beyond coding; we blend deep domain expertise with a product-focused mindset and a vibrant builder culture.
Our teams expertly manage global projects, tackling a diverse range of customer challenges while driving transformative changes throughout the product lifecycle. We are passionate about advancing customer success, nurturing platform innovation, and providing unwavering support to over 540 P&C companies worldwide. From my vantage point, the India team is not just participating in this journey—we are leading it with confidence and creativity. And this is just the beginning of an exciting period ahead.
Want to be featured in our next ‘Leaders Hub’ Spotlight? If you’re leading innovation from a GCC or have a story that can inspire the ecosystem, we’d love to hear from you.
