Who is Ajit Jain? Indian-origin Berkshire Hathaway VP whom Warren Buffett trusts on AI investments

Berkshire Hathaway's CEO, Warren Buffett, in the shareholder meeting on Saturday, May 3, 2025, directed the question on artificial intelligence (AI) investments to Ajit Jain, a ‘trusted’ senior executive at the conglomerate. While taking questions from shareholders, Buffett seemed to completely trust Indian-origin Jain about his conglomerate's ventures into AI.

Ajit Jain, the Vice Chairman of Insurance Operations at Berkshire Hathaway, said that artificial intelligence (AI) has the ability to transform the insurance industry at the company's first shareholder meeting for 2025.

The executive also admitted that AI technology can be a “real game changer” in the insurance business, helping to assess, price, and sell risk and pay claims. 

“I certainly also feel that people end up spending enormous amounts of money trying to chase the next new fashionable thing,” said Jain in the meeting. “We are not very good in terms of being the fastest or the first mover. Our approach is more to wait and see until the opportunity crystallises, and we have a better point of view in terms of risk of failure, upside, downside,” he said, highlighting Berkshire's cautious approach towards AI as an investment.

However, Ajit Jain also highlighted that Berkshire Hathaway will not hesitate to invest once the right opportunity presents itself for investment.

“Right now, the individual insurance operations do dabble in AI and try and figure out what is the best way to exploit it, but we have not yet made a conscious big-time effort in terms of pouring a lot of money into this opportunity,” said Jain. 

“My guess is we will be in a state of readiness and should that opportunity pop up, we’ll be in a state where we’ll jump in promptly,” said Berkshire's Vice Chairman.

Who is Ajit Jain?

Ajit Jain was born in the year 1950 in India. Looking at Jain's early career milestones, he holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur.

He also worked briefly with IBM as an engineer and salesman in 1972 and later completed an MBA from Harvard University. Eventually, he joined McKinsey & Co. and worked as an Executive between 1978 and 1986. 

In 1986, Ajit Jain joined Berkshire's National Indemnity Co., thereby entering the Warren Buffett-led conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway.

Jain proved himself to be a brilliant strategist by 2007, and this led to Warren Buffett recognising him as an expert in large, complex deals. In 2009, Jain was appointed as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway's reinsurance business. Since then, Jain has been an important figure behind Berkshire Hathaway's success.

“Under Ajit, our insurance operation has blossomed from an obscure Omaha-based company into a world leader, renowned for both its taste for risk and its Gibraltar-like financial strength,” said Buffett in his letter to shareholders in February 2025.