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 such 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. The five IT companies did not respond to Mint's queries. A common thread running through all postings is that most are traditional IT roles requiring use of AI tools in software maintenance, content, data analysis, and even research purposes. A staffing firm head attributed this to clients' needs. "They are doing it because they need the candidate to have knowledge of using an AI tool, writing software, and collaborating with an AI tool. Like when Java came, a lot of jobs were in Java, now nobody blinks an eyelid if it's a Java job," said Aditya Mishra, managing director and chief executive of CIEL HR. The Bernstein analysts stick their neck out to say that new jobs were not created for AI. "AI's employment promise, when viewed through evidence rather than excitement, looks less and less like a broad-based job-creation cycle and more like a profound redistribution of economic gains," said the Bernstein analysts. This raises concerns about whether these firms have actually reshaped their organizations or selling old as new amid a technological inflection. "We are clearly seeing this trend. In fact, it extends well beyond 40% of technology roles. Across the industry, positions that traditionally focused on software development, data management, cloud infrastructure and business analytics are increasingly being repositioned as AI-enabled or AI-powered roles," said Sanketh Chengappa, director and business head for professional staffing at Adecco India....