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Holding·last review26 Apr 2026

Six well-documented public agentic AI deployment failures from 2024-2025 (Air Canada bereavement-refund chatbot, NYC MyCity small-business chatbot, Replit production-database wipe, Cursor unauthorised code deletion, Klarna customer-service reversal, DPD chatbot escalation incident) cluster into three structural failure modes: (1) the agent acts as a binding agent of the enterprise without disclosure or approval, (2) the agent operates with permissions the deployment never authorised, (3) the agent's economic case requires a service quality the deployment cannot sustain. Each failure mode maps to a specific control from the seven-control surface; all six failures would have been mitigated by controls already specified in the OWASP Agentic AI Top 10 enterprise walkthrough. The pattern is consistent enough that an enterprise can use the cases as a procurement filter: any vendor unable to point to its specific control posture against each of the three failure modes is not procurement-ready.

Six-case agent failure case-study analysis. 90-day review cadence. All cases are publicly documented in primary sources (Civil Resolution Tribunal decision, The Markup investigation, public X/LinkedIn posts by founders and engineers, mainstream UK news coverage). Watches: (1) new high-profile incidents that establish additional failure modes beyond the three documented, (2) updates to the legal record (the Air Canada Civil Resolution Tribunal decision is the highest-leverage precedent for agent-binding doctrine and remains under-litigated in 2026), (3) vendor-side public statements that revise the documented record (e.g., Replit's response to the database-wipe incident has shifted vendor disclosure norms).

Published
26 Apr 2026
Last reviewed
26 Apr 2026
Next review
+43d· 25 Jul 2026
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The claim: Six well-documented public agentic AI deployment failures from 2024-2025 (Air Canada bereavement-refund chatbot, NYC MyCity small-business chatbot, Replit production-database wipe, Cursor unauthorised code deletion, Klarna customer-service reversal, DPD chatbot escalation incident) cluster into three structural failure modes: (1) the agent acts as a binding agent of the enterprise without disclosure or approval, (2) the agent operates with permissions the deployment never authorised, (3) the agent's economic case requires a service quality the deployment cannot sustain. Each failure mode maps to a specific control from the seven-control surface; all six failures would have been mitigated by controls already specified in the OWASP Agentic AI Top 10 enterprise walkthrough. The pattern is consistent enough that an enterprise can use the cases as a procurement filter: any vendor unable to point to its specific control posture against each of the three failure modes is not procurement-ready.

About this register

The Reporting register tracks claims published from articles addressed to senior enterprise IT leaders — CIOs, IT directors, heads of platform. Claims are reviewed on a 30–90 day cadence; each review either reaffirms the claim, marks one substantive part as Partial, or marks it Not holding once the underlying evidence has been overtaken.

Recent corrections in Reporting

  • AM-132 · Partial · 10 Jun 2026

    One of four legs unanchored on re-review. The claim text attributes '12% of deployments clearing 300%+ ROI with 88% at or below break-even at 12-18 months' to the Stanford DEL 2026 Enterprise AI Playbook. Full-text verification on 10 Jun 2026 found no such figure in that source: the playbook (Pereira, Graylin, Brynjolfsson, Apr 2026) studies 51 successful deployments by design and contains no ROI distribution, no 300%-plus cohort, and no break-even measurement point (full finding at AM-029, correction of 10 Jun 2026). The only verified figure carrying the same 12/88 numerals is IDC research with Lenovo (via CIO.com, Mar 2025): roughly 88% of AI proof-of-concepts never reach production and roughly 12% graduate — a pilot-to-production graduation metric, not an ROI distribution. The Gartner 28%, McKinsey 23%/17%, and MIT NANDA 95% legs verify; they support a small high-performing tail and a large struggling body, but none documents the two-peak bimodal shape the claim asserts. Status Up -> Partial.

  • AM-129 · Partial · 10 Jun 2026

    One of three read-against anchors unanchored on re-review. The claim text cites 'Stanford Digital Economy Lab Enterprise AI Playbook (12/88 bimodal ROI distribution at 12-18 months)' and frames the realistic ROI band around 'the highest-discipline 12% cohort'. Full-text verification on 10 Jun 2026 found the playbook contains no 12/88 distribution, no bimodal ROI shape, and no 12-18-month ROI measurement point (full finding at AM-029, correction of 10 Jun 2026). The claim's core negative finding — no mid-market enterprise has produced a documented +240% ROI in 90 days under audited conditions — is unaffected; the McKinsey State of AI 2025 and MIT NANDA legs verify and continue to support it. The '12% cohort' framing has no verifiable referent. The only verified figure carrying the 12/88 numerals is IDC's pilot-graduation finding (roughly 88% of AI proof-of-concepts never reach production; via CIO.com, Mar 2025), a different metric. Status Up -> Partial.

  • AM-201 · Partial · 10 Jun 2026

    One of four named datasets unanchored on review. The claim text names 'Stanford DEL's 12% clearing 300%+ ROI vs 88% at or below break-even' as one of four independent datasets. Full-text verification on 10 Jun 2026 found the Stanford DEL Enterprise AI Playbook contains no such distribution — it studies 51 successful deployments by design and carries no ROI-realisation failure data (full finding at AM-029, correction of 10 Jun 2026). The McKinsey (23% scaling, 17% EBIT-attribution), Gartner (28% fully paying off), and MIT NANDA (95% no measurable P&L impact) datasets verify; the claim's spine stands on three datasets rather than four. The only verified figure carrying the 12/88 numerals is IDC's pilot-graduation finding (roughly 88% of AI proof-of-concepts never reach production; via CIO.com, Mar 2025), a different metric from an ROI distribution. Status Up -> Partial.

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  • AM-061 · Holding · next +15d (27 Jun 2026)

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  • AM-003 · Partial · next +15d (27 Jun 2026)

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