Agentic AI's compounding economics show up in back-office operations (AP, IT ticket triage, HR onboarding, procurement, close-cycle reconciliation), not in front-office customer-facing workflows. The 12% of deployments that clear 300%+ ROI cluster there for structural reasons: per-action savings × action frequency × task-specification tightness × existing process instrumentation.

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. 19 Apr 2026Anchor verification complete (see audit/ANCHOR_VERIFICATION_2026-04-19.md). 'Sarah Chen' and the 2 AM Munich-hotel scenario are fully fabricated — the article's narrative protagonist does not correspond to any real executive. The underlying framework (back-office cost compounding faster than front-office wins; per-action delta × frequency) IS defensible against McKinsey + Futurum operational-AI-ROI data. Rewrite required before the article can move to Holding.
3. 19 Apr 2026Body rewritten. Fabricated 'Sarah Chen' narrative frame removed entirely. Claim spine sharpened: original was 'back-office cost compounding faster than front-office'; new version adds the structural explanation (per-action × frequency × task-specification × measurement instrumentation) and specific 2026 benchmark anchors (Stanford DEL 12%/88%, Gartner 28%, Futurum 71% vs 40%). Status moves from Partial to Up. Cross-links to AM-020 (TCO), AM-021 (measurement discipline), AM-022 (bimodal ROI) explicitly drawn in the body. Next review 18 Jun 2026.
4. 28 Apr 2026Article retracted 28 Apr 2026. Slug structure (fictional protagonist, 'discovered her competitors' secret weapon') is the fabricated narrative frame the body had to remove on 19 Apr 2026. Body rewritten with Stanford DEL / McKinsey / Futurum sourcing (preserved in archived/) but the slug is the structural problem. URL now redirects to /retractions/?retired=the-executive-who-discovered-her-competitors-secret-weapon. Claim withdrawn — status moves to Not holding, no further reviews scheduled.