Key Points
- Digital Divide Data opens wholly owned AI centre in Dehradun with 150 staff onboarded
- Centre targets 800 to 1,000 employees for robotics and physical AI data services
- Fresh graduates hired locally with 95 per cent workforce from marginalised backgrounds
Digital Divide Data (DDD), a New York-headquartered social enterprise, has opened a global capability centre in Dehradun focused on robotics and artificial intelligence data services, with plans to hire up to 1,000 employees in what would become one of Uttarakhand’s largest concentrations of specialist AI roles.
The centre, which began operations on 1 August 2026, has already onboarded 150 employees across three batches in its first six weeks. A global capability centre (GCC), is a dedicated facility that provides specialised services to a company’s global operations rather than serving local markets.
The Dehradun facility is DDD’s first wholly owned GCC in India and marks a significant expansion of its global AI delivery network across the United States, Cambodia, Kenya and Laos.
“India has become a critical centre of gravity for enterprise AI, and Dehradun is an important investment in DDD’s next chapter,” said Steve Larson, chief operating officer, Digital Divide Data. “It expands our ability to support clients building increasingly sophisticated AI products, including physical AI and robotics, while strengthening the technical and delivery capability of our global network.”
Physical AI focus
The centre will support specialised work in physical AI and robotics. Physical AI refers to artificial intelligence systems designed to perceive, understand and interact with the real world rather than operating purely in digital environments.
This includes work on egocentric video, where data is captured from a first-person perspective using wearable cameras or sensors, and multimodal datasets that combine different types of data such as video, audio and sensor readings.
The facility’s capabilities span egocentric data collection, multimodal data annotation, data curation, support for fine-tuning large language models, low-resource language services, AI model evaluation and data preparation and validation. These services support the development and improvement of AI models that work across text, image, video and other formats.
Located at Doon IT Park in the State Industrial and Investment Corporation of Uttarakhand (SIIDCUL) zone, the centre provides enterprise-grade infrastructure and security required to support global engineering teams with AI model training services.
Digital Divide Data local hiring model
The company is focusing its recruitment on fresh graduates and local candidates in Uttarakhand rather than experienced hires from metropolitan areas. DDD said it selects candidates based on aptitude and potential rather than prior experience, then provides structured induction and role-specific training before employees begin production work.
“We chose Dehradun because of its depth of talent and its potential to create meaningful technology careers for people in Uttarakhand,” said Bethuel Jabez, vice president of operations, Digital Divide Data.
“With 150 colleagues already onboarded, we are building a centre that combines rigorous training, high standards and real opportunities for people to grow with the work,” Jabez added.
Founded in 2001, DDD operates as an impact sourcing organisation, a model that deliberately recruits workers from economically and socially marginalised backgrounds. The company states that 95 per cent of its global workforce comes from such backgrounds and that it has helped more than 15,000 people build careers across its operations.
By the numbers
Key figures from this story- 1,000
- target employees at Dehradun centre
- 150
- staff onboarded in first six weeks
- 15,000
- careers built since 2001 globally
The Dehradun centre brings this model to Uttarakhand, where high-end technology employment has historically been limited compared to metropolitan centres such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. The state has sought to position itself as a destination for technology investment, with SIIDCUL operating industrial zones in Dehradun and Haridwar.
Your Questions, Answered
What does Digital Divide Data do in Dehradun?
Digital Divide Data operates a global capability centre in Dehradun that provides AI and data services including robotics data collection, multimodal annotation, AI model evaluation and large language model fine-tuning support for global clients.
How many employees will Digital Divide Data hire in Dehradun?
The company has onboarded 150 employees in its first six weeks of operation and plans to grow to between 800 and 1,000 employees in the coming months.
What is physical AI?
Physical AI refers to artificial intelligence systems designed to perceive, understand and interact with the real world. This includes robots, autonomous vehicles and other machines that must operate in physical environments rather than purely digital ones.
What is impact sourcing?
Impact sourcing is a hiring model that deliberately recruits workers from economically and socially marginalised backgrounds. Digital Divide Data states that 95 per cent of its global workforce comes from such backgrounds.
