The McKinsey State of AI 2025 figure (23% of enterprises scaling an agentic AI system, 39% still experimenting) is an operational-preconditions outcome, not a technical-readiness outcome. Four preconditions (agent registry, measured pre-deployment baseline, differentiated change-management playbook for adjacent units, cross-agent threat model at scale) separate pilots that cross into production from pilots that stall. The 6% AI-high-performer segment is the subset of the 23% scaling with additional measurement discipline that makes ROI audit-survivable.

Claim-archive signature piece analysing McKinsey State of AI 2025 (ANA-2026-006). Cross-validated against Stanford DEL ACA-2026-003, Gartner ANA-2026-001/002, CMU ACA-2026-004. 60-day review cadence. Watches: (1) subsequent large-sample datasets showing 23% and 6% compressing toward 39% experimenting, (2) cross-enterprise analyses disproving the preconditions framing, (3) analyst frameworks converging on preconditions-style framing.