The Speed Advantage: How AI and Customer Obsession Are Reshaping Specialty Insurance | Christian Stobbs

Making Risk Flow | The Future of Insurance

Making Risk Flow | The Future of Insurance
The Speed Advantage: How AI and Customer Obsession Are Reshaping Specialty Insurance | Christian Stobbs
May 19, 2026 Season 8 Episode 18
Cytora

What if the insurance industry could move at the speed of modern technology?

In this episode of Making Risk Flow, Christian Stobbs, Chief Strategy & Corporate Development Officer at Markel, joins host Juan de Castro to discuss what it takes to build a preeminent specialty insurer in an increasingly technology-driven market. Christian explains why speed, customer obsession, technical expertise, and principled decision-making must work together as a unified competitive advantage. 

The conversation explores how insurers can localize strategy across international markets, reduce costly operational inefficiencies, and deploy AI to enhance underwriting and claims without losing critical human judgment. Christian also shares why transformational technology initiatives should operate with startup-style urgency, how AI will reshape underwriting roles, and why the insurers that adapt fastest will define the future of specialty insurance. 



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Our previous guests include: Bronek Masojada of PPL, Craig Knightly of Inigo, Andrew Horton of QBE Insurance, Simon McGinn of Allianz, Stephane Flaquet of Hiscox, Matthew Grant of InsTech, Paul Brand of Convex, Paolo Cuomo of Gallagher Re, and Thierry Daucourt of AXA.

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