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HFS Research names Aokah an early leader in shifting GCC advisory from weeks-long consulting cycles to AI-led, hours-long decision intelligence, citing a rare live enterprise proof point and the only pure-play GCC Services-as-Software platform in the market
NEW YORK, May 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- When the head of Global Business Services at a Fortune 500 chemical manufacturer needed to stress-test GCC location choices in real time and clear CFO scrutiny on costs, he turned to Aokah. What would have taken 10 weeks of consultant output was done in less than one week. That result, documented and verified by independent analyst firm HFS Research, is what earned Aokah the HFS Hot Tech Vendor designation for 2026.
HFS Research, one of the world's leading global research and advisory firms, selected Aokah from a competitive field of emerging technology providers based on five criteria: distinctiveness of offering, ecosystem robustness, client impact, financial position, and measurable impact on the Services-as-Software category. Aokah was recognized as 'one of the first vendors to address the GCC advisory bottleneck' by replacing people-intensive consulting with an AI-native execution intelligence platform.
'The market for GCC setup advisory is shifting from a consulting-led, weeks-long decision cycle to a data- and AI-led, hours-long one. Aokah is the early leader in this shift.' — HFS Research, 2026
The Problem Aokah Was Built to Solve
Global demand for Global Capability Centers (GCCs) has grown rapidly, with more than 1,800 GCCs operating in India alone, with additional acceleration across LATAM, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia. Yet the way enterprises set up GCCs has not kept pace. More than 72% of new GCC builds experience material delays or cost overruns within their first 24 months, driven by fragmented advisory models, manual decision-making, and execution complexity that outpaces consulting capacity.
Aokah was founded to end that execution gap. Its AI-native platform compresses every phase of the GCC lifecycle, from strategic exploration to go-live and optimization, replacing weeks of consulting-heavy analysis with platform-led execution intelligence.
What the Platform Does
Aokah's platform maps directly to the GCC lifecycle through three core modules:
- Explorer: AI-enabled GCC location intelligence and business case modeling. Covers cost, talent depth, infrastructure, geopolitical risk, ESG, and ecosystem signals across 500+ global cities. Replaces the slide decks consultants typically hand-build.
- Builder: Execution governance and milestone orchestration for GCC setup. Now generally available as of April 2026. Covers entity structuring, role architecture, hiring plans, and vendor selection through agentic workflows with a human-in-the-loop deciding at every gate.
- Optimizer: Continuous GCC performance optimization and scale intelligence (roadmap). Targets for productivity benchmarking, span-of-control analysis, and process automation were identified from operational data.
All three modules are powered by Aokah's proprietary 5 Wisdom Engines, spanning Program, Geo, Talent, Ecosystem, and Delivery intelligence, drawing on codified methodology from more than 300 enterprise GCC programs across 25+ years of operating experience.
What Enterprises Are Saying
Three global enterprises in consumer goods, diversified manufacturing, and logistics are actively using Aokah Explorer and Builder in live programs. The Fortune 500 chemical manufacturer case, cited directly in the HFS report, stands as one of the clearest proof points in the category: objective, AI-driven location intelligence that reconciled anecdotal consultant preferences with real data, including high-attrition market traps, and delivered a defensible shortlist the CFO accepted.
"GCCs don't fail because of bad strategy. They fail because execution is fragmented, slow, and opaque. We built Aokah to change that, giving enterprise leaders the intelligence and orchestration they need to make faster decisions, reduce execution risk, and build GCCs that deliver from day one. This recognition from HFS validates that we are building the right platform at the right moment."
— Atul Vashistha, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Aokah
"Aokah is one of the first players to combine deep GCC focus with a genuine services-as-software model. The combination of proprietary data, AI-native workflows, and hard-won operating experience from 300+ enterprise programs creates a foundation that competitors will find difficult to match. Buyers who engage Aokah early will compress decision cycles, de-risk location and org-design choices with evidence, and free their consulting partners to focus on advisory and change management."
— Achyuta Ghosh, Executive Research Leader, HFS Research
Defining a New Category: GCC Services-as-Software
The HFS Hot Tech designation places Aokah within the Services-as-Software (SaS) category, a market HFS Research estimates will reshape more than $1.5 trillion in enterprise technology and services spend over the coming decade. Within this shift, HFS positions Aokah as 'one of the first players to combine GCC focus with services-as-software,' occupying a clear whitespace between generalist AI consulting platforms and specialist GCC advisory firms.
The report further notes that Aokah is also being white-labeled by consulting and research firms, meaning enterprise GBS leaders may already be using Aokah as the underlying intelligence engine without realizing it. HFS advises buyers to ask their consulting partners which platform is powering their location intelligence and GCC playbooks.
Aokah expanded into the EMEA market in January 2026 with the launch of UK operations, extending its platform to support European enterprises designing and scaling GCC strategies.
About Aokah
Aokah is an AI-powered execution intelligence and orchestration platform for Global Capability Centers (GCCs), Global Business Services (GBS), and enterprise transformation leaders. Its AI-native Services-as-Software™ model helps enterprises explore, build, and optimize GCC operations using proprietary data across 500+ global cities, agentic workflows, and execution governance intelligence built from 300+ enterprise GCC programs. Founded in 2024 and headquartered in New York, Aokah is backed by Mphasis Corporation and counts Fortune 500 companies in consumer goods, diversified manufacturing, logistics, and chemicals among its early clients.
For more information, visit www.aokah.com
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