bengaluru/mumbai, Sept. 14 -- Artificial intelligence (AI) may be creating fewer new jobs than what the openings listings suggest. The country's largest information technology (IT) firms seem to be rebranding old roles in software development, maintenance and business analytics with an AI label rather than creating new ones, at a time when the rise of the technology is posing an existential threat to the country's $300 billion IT sector. The trend is increasingly visible in hiring. According to industry experts and staffing firm representatives, as well as a Bernstein research report, much of what is being advertised as 'AI work' remains rooted in traditional technology roles, albeit with the use of AI tools. "Bulk of the new 'AI' vacancies dotted across employment platforms carry a lot of AI language and buzzwords, but are, in spirit, conventional software, data, cloud, or digital transformation work," Bernstein analysts Venugopal Garre and Nikhil Arela said in a note dated 3 September. According to a Mint analysis of job portals of five of the country's largest tech services firms-Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, Wipro Ltd and Tech Mahindra Ltd-there are at least 3,500 AI roles. Top revenue-grosser TCS has at least 604 AI-related roles pertaining to IT developer, engineer, customer support, and consultancy. Bengaluru-based Infosys, which is second ranked, has about 1,340. The third-largest HCLTech has about 1,376 roles with AI or automation titles, while the fourth-largest Wipro has at least 350 openings in AI engineering and consulting. Most of these roles include IT integration using AI tools. On the other hand, at India's fifth-largest IT services firm, Tech Mahindra, about 42 roles of the 61 have AI-related titles or skill sets. The positions are technical lead, AI content analysts and GenAI consultants....