New Delhi, 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.
At Mumbai-headquartered TCS, the top revenue-grosser, there are 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 such positions.
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, 29 roles of the 61 posted have AI-related titles or skill sets, whereas atleast 13 of them have AI job titles. The positions are technical lead, AI content analysts and GenAI consultants.
“We see this as an evolution of existing roles and not rebranding. Most traditional job roles are increasingly absorbing AI as a skill. There is currently only a small set of roles that are purely AI focused. For most employees, it is essentially “what you do, plus AI,” said Richard Lobo, chief people officer of Tech Mahindra, in response to Mint’s questionnaire.
“For clients, the conversation is primarily on how AI can solve a specific business or industry problem,” added Lobo.
There was no response to Mint’s 7 September emails sent to four IT majors until the time of publishing.
A common thread between each of these job postings reviewed is that most are traditional IT roles that make use of AI tools in software maintenance, content, data analysis, and even research purposes.
A staffing firm head attributed this rebranding 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 are selling old as new in the face of the largest inflection point.
For now, this rebranding of existing roles comes amid tempered headcount addition and low fresher openings in the country’s largest tech services companies.
In fiscal year 2026 (FY26), the big five IT firms cut headcount on a cumulative basis by 6,981 people. This was largely due to the layoffs announced by TCS in July last year, which saw the exit of about 12,000 executives in middle and senior roles. This big five had added headcount in the preceding fiscal.
Together, the five firms employ about 1.5 million people, a fourth of the country’s 5.95 million IT executives.
A second staffing firm executive had a similar opinion.
“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.
While two staffing firm executives said companies welcomed this move, two IT research firm heads differed.
“The ‘repackaging’ is often viewed as the services providers moving down the AI transformation path, and for the most part is not thought of as remarkable,” said Peter Bendor-Samuel, founder of Everest Group, a Dallas-based IT search firm. “It does in some instances create some transparency issues and clients are keen to ensure that they are not being charged more for the same services or that the service providers are in fact adopting AI to their benefit.”
Phil Fersht, chief executive of HFS Research, which is a Massachusetts-based IT research firm, concurred. “It hurts client relationships when providers sell the label rather than the capability,” he said. “Clients are becoming much more sophisticated about AI and can quickly distinguish between someone who has completed an AI certification and someone who has actually deployed AI into a complex enterprise environment.”
Fersht added that companies do not actually want their IT vendors to create new AI roles but for the existing roles to reduce the amount of labour required to deliver technology and business operations.
“The real tension is, therefore, not the absence of new roles. It is providers charging clients for supposedly scarce AI talent, while simultaneously promising that AI will dramatically reduce the human effort required,” he said. Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from MINT. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at contentservices@htdigital.in