From waiting to winning: TP in India's incredible CX and digital transformation story

Do you remember what India was like in 2001?

You had to wait 3 weeks to get a landline. Mobile phones were a status symbol, not a connectivity device. Internet was primarily accessed through cyber cafes, not from the palm of your hand. The stock market was a rounding error by today's standards.

The customer was not the king yet. The customer was still just trying to get a dial tone. And the idea that India would one day become the world's most consequential economy was still a bold, contested prediction. It was into this India, kinetic, complex, brimming with unrealized potential, that TP, or Teleperformance (as it was known at the time) launched its India operations with four delivery centers.

The decision, which in hindsight was a no-brainer

Millennials who grew up in 2001 might remember the uncertainty. The dot-com bubble had burst. The world was reeling from a seismic geopolitical shock. Global business confidence was fragile.

India, in its post-liberalization phase, was like a breath of fresh air. A young, English-speaking population with a deep appetite for knowledge-based work. The first generation of Indian professionals provided proof-point, in Silicon Valley and in London, that talent had no passport. And the Information Technology (IT)/Business Process Management (BPM) industry, nascent and experimental, was quietly beginning to rewire how the world thought about delivering customer experiences (CX) at scale. The new India was being built and driven by the people who had spent generations placing humanity at the center of every interaction.

In the western hemisphere, Teleperformance (TP), a French company founded in 1978, was already making waves in the customer service and telesales industry. Its decision to launch operations in India was driven not by cost advantage alone, but by a deep trust in a country whose people were built to lead the future of human connection.

There’s nothing gradual about India, everything’s transformational

What unfolded over the next two and a half decades was not incremental progress. It was a compression of history. The arc that took Western economies a century to travel, India and TP covered in 25 years.

India emerged as the world's preferred destination for IT and BPM. Customer support, back-office operations, and technical services began migrating east. A new professional class was born: young, ambitious, and extraordinarily capable.

TP in India grew along with the Indian economy. It moved vertically and horizontally, acquiring Intelenet Global Services, launching global digital business services, and establishing delivery centers in several Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities to expand its scale and capabilities.

The mobile revolution and the Digital India initiative accelerated connectivity to hundreds of millions who had never been online. Unified payments interface (UPI) transactions crossed 10 billion per month. India's startup ecosystem produced dozens of unicorns. The country that once built the world's software began building the world's digital infrastructure.

We, at TP, mirrored India’s transformation

Through every chapter of this transformation, we were not spectators. We were on the ground: adapting, growing, and serving our clients alongside the India that was being built in real time.

"In 2001, we were just one site and a handful of believers and betting that India could serve the world. India just doesn't follow TP standards, we set them. From back office to being the nerve center, India is the growth engine of TP. The first 25 years, this team earned the place, and next 25 years, it's going to set the pace." — Anish Mukker, Regional President of India, Philippines, and ANZ at TP

Over 25 years, TP has expanded its India operations in 15+ cities and 40+ sites with 90,000+ professionals. TP has continued to evolve with India’s transformational journey and channeled the professionals’ appetite to delivering CX that is deeply human, and operationally sound.

The India advantage

Empathy was and remains India's greatest competitive asset. An empathy woven into culture, a tradition of hospitality that predates any corporation, a genuine orientation toward solving problems for others. What we built here was never just a delivery center. It was a center of excellence, where the warmth of Indian service culture met global operational rigor.

In these two and a half decades, we have witnessed and helped architect the full evolution of CX: from voice-first to omnichannel; from reactive to proactive; from human-only to human-augmented. India has been at the forefront of every inflection point. Its talent pool adapted faster than any other market. Its leaders became our global leaders.

Our achievements

Visit the awards page for more info.

India's century is our century

The India of 2026 is not the India of 2001. It is the world's most populous nation, its fifth-largest economy, a global technology powerhouse, and the fastest-growing major consumer market on earth. Its middle class is the size of the United States. Its digital infrastructure is, in several respects, ahead of the West.

And the customer experience industry, the industry we have built our identity around, is being reinvented again. Artificial intelligence is reshaping every interaction. The line between digital and physical service is dissolving. Personalization has moved from aspiration to expectation. And India, with its deep technology talent, its scale, and its innate understanding of human connection, is positioned to lead this reinvention.

“I remember fondly all those years ago coming to India and helping to bring our US market clients here, and all the amazing friends and family that we met and maintained along the way. So proud of what this team has accomplished together, and look forward to a bright future.” — Miranda Collard, CEO of the Americas at TP.

Our commitment forward

We are deepening our investment in AI-powered digital CX solutions built with and for Indian talent. We are expanding our centers of innovation. We are training the next generation of CX leaders: professionals who will shape how global brands engage with customers not just in India, but everywhere. The next 25 years begin today.

"India is the reference for many aspects of our industry. India is the center of excellence for many, many companies that we get the pleasure to work with. I am more confident about the future, about what India can represent for TP and for the industry in an era of a hybrid workforce where humans and AI come together. Looking forward to building the next 25 years together." — Jorge Amar, Global CEO of TP.