Why the Biggest AI Winners Won't Be the Ones We Expect

Patrick Charles, Global Head of P&C Programs at SiriusPoint, explains why there's no doubt we're in an AI bubble, why he still believes AI will change insurance the way the internet did, and why his team says no to most of the MGAs that come knocking.

A Green Bay kid who asked his mom how to calculate NBA win percentages at four or five, Patrick traces the path from a chemical engineering major who hated lab work, to actuarial exams he compares to taking ten CPA exams every six months, to St. Paul, a field actuary job at Zurich in San Francisco, a sell-side analyst seat at Sanford Bernstein, four years at McKinsey, a return to Zurich, and finally a right turn into a six-month-old reinsurer called SiriusPoint, losing three business school deposits along the way.

Discover why he bets on people instead of jobs, why everything he does is a test, why the world splits into builders, fixers, and people who keep the machine running the same every day, what separates a real MGA from an underwriter who hangs up a shingle, and why almost nobody in the late nineties would have picked a company that sells books online as the big winner.

In this episode:

1. 00:00Cold Open
2. 01:02SiriusPoint and the Programs Business
3. 01:40Growing Up in Titletown, USA
4. 03:09"Just Go Do the Work, Patrick"
5. 06:15Ten CPA Exams Every Six Months
6. 08:50Planning Two Jobs Ahead
7. 14:00The Pickup Basketball Game That Changed His Path
8. 16:22Learning Insurance as a Sell-Side Analyst
9. 21:10"You'll Never Regret Taking the Interview"
10. 25:44Why He Bets on People
11. 28:23"Everything Is a Test"
12. 33:09Five to Ten Good Ideas a Week
13. 35:42The Right Turn to SiriusPoint
14. 40:11Builders, Fixers, and the Status Quo
15. 46:38"We Say No a Lot"
16. 49:56When AI Entered the Conversation
17. 50:40"There's No Doubt We're in an AI Bubble"
18. 54:28What If AI Is the Next 3D Printer?
19. 56:11Where AI Is Actually Paying Off
20. 58:40Treat the Janitor No Differently Than the Banker
21. 1:01:33Five Years Out

Patrick Charles is Global Head of P&C Programs at SiriusPoint. He is responsible for the company's global programs strategy and the performance of the Global P&C Programs business. Since joining SiriusPoint in 2021, Patrick has served on the boards of several program administrators and MGAs. Prior to SiriusPoint, he held senior underwriting and strategy leadership roles at Zurich Insurance Group in North America. During his previous 20+ years in the property-casualty insurance industry, Patrick spent time at McKinsey & Company, Alliance Bernstein and the St. Paul Companies. He began his career as an actuary and is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society.

Subscribe to Context Window for more insights from the operators deploying AI inside real insurance companies.