Yes, AIC (Amps Interrupting Capacity) can only be applied to something that interrupts, such as a circuit breaker or fuse. Everything else has a "withstand rating", usually expressed in kA, which is related but not the same. Lately because of the changes to Article 409, they now use the term "SCCR" for Short Circuit Current Rating, which is basically the same thing, but as mentioned before, the SCCR can be diferent for series tested combinations. 5kA is just the courtesy rating given to un-tested or legacy components.
Here's an example:
Siemens SCCR white paper link If you scroll down to page 9 you can see that in the example they give, the breaker is rated 25kAIC, the contactor and OL relay are only 5kA short circuit withstand, but the combination has been tested together at 100kA SCCR.
This link gets you to examples of all of their SCCR listed combinations. Several other control equipment manufacturers have similar resources available now.
Siemens SCCR web site, but be forewarned; if the component combinations are not very specifically on one of these lists, you default back to the 5kA un-tested.