Agent-mediated network management reduces unplanned firewall-change incident costs only when the agent's action log feeds into the same change-management audit trail human changes use — not as a parallel system.

Correction log

1. 19 Apr 2026Article predates the Holding-up standard. Retroactive claim assigned on 19 Apr 2026. Initial verdict 'Partial' — spine is defensible, per-claim numeric verification deferred to +60d review. Body not rewritten per AGENTMODE_PHASE2_BRIEF §114.
2. 28 Apr 2026Article retracted 28 Apr 2026. '$7.2M' figure in the slug cannot be traced to any disclosed firewall-change incident. Body never rewritten past 19 Apr 2026 backfill. The dollar specificity in the URL is the structural problem and Google's quality algorithm has independently flagged the URL. URL now redirects to /retractions/?retired=the-7-2m-firewall-change-that-transformed-network-management-how-agentic-ai-prevents-it-disasters. Claim withdrawn — status moves to Not holding, no further reviews scheduled.