{"id":265,"date":"2024-05-08T11:35:35","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T10:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/proactuaryreso-uzsy.wp1.site\/resources\/?p=265"},"modified":"2025-11-26T08:20:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T08:20:44","slug":"6-thoughts-on-future-strategies-for-the-actuarial-profession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/6-thoughts-on-future-strategies-for-the-actuarial-profession\/","title":{"rendered":"Actuarial Profession"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What can the actuarial profession do to remain relevant well into the future? Here are a few thoughts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"actuarial<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>1. Perpetual Learning<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Going forward, I think, there needs to be a greater focus on \u201con demand learning or upskilling\u201d and accessibility to resources as and when needed for learning on the job. Eg understanding and applying artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, IoT, wearables, dealing with new emerging risks. The list goes on and is constantly evolving..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the profession can and should continue to play a role in continuous ongoing learning after qualification. It increasingly seems that qualification is only the beginning and we need to be constantly learning and evolving as actuaries, to avoid getting left behind. Learning to learn and being flexible and having an ability to reinvent oneself are critical skills for the future. I believe the profession can help us stay nimble as well as fostering a culture of continuous ongoing lifelong learning. Otherwise, I believe, others (eg \u201cdata scientists\u201d) that often have the more flexible mindset may continue to make inroads into traditional actuarial areas (eg pricing).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>2. Innovation & Creativity<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I would like to see a greater focus on innovation and creativity as well as more training in these areas. These skills are becoming increasingly important. The insurance world is now beginning to change and \u201ccatch up\u201d with other sectors, in terms of technology adoption. We should be aiming to claim a slice of the InsurTech pie and not just seen as the regulator checkbox guys or technicians. Let\u2019s learn to bring more of an agile mindset to our work. I think it will be increasingly important to be able to think like an entrepreneur. Building, testing, iterating. Let\u2019s continually learn to take initiative and find unique solutions to the new emerging business problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>3. Data Science<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Data science, especially machine learning, is becoming more and more important as a tool for actuarial work. It\u2019s great to see the profession doing a lot in this space. Can the actuarial qualification act as a more general route into a career as a data scientist? I think it possibly can. We have a unique position in this space due to our code of ethics and highly regarded professional qualification\/recognised credentials. Hence, we have a unique advantage over many others claiming to be data scientists (given anyone can now say they are a data scientist!). The problem though is the opportunity cost of learning irrelevant material (for much of data science) to get the actuarial credential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>4. Professional Actuarial Judgement & Business Acumen<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Related to the above \u2013 there\u2019s a lot of talk about automation and people losing their jobs to robots. Whilst there is a certain amount of hype around this, I do believe automation will change the nature of many jobs in the future. Digital and automation is the future and we need to be part of that. Let\u2019s, therefore, ensure that we continue to add value beyond the number crunching by having the skills to exercise professional judgment and business acumen whilst staying on top of developing trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>5. Supply & Demand<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I think the profession has a role to play here to help ensure this is managed carefully in different parts of the world. India, in particular, seems to be currently feeling the effects of an over-supply of new aspiring actuaries having difficulty getting on to the actuarial career ladder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe we can collaborate more with other actuarial bodies to effectively build brand \u201cactuary\u201d (trusted advisors of risk). There will always be risk and especially today risk is everywhere and changing all the time. I would like to continue to see brand \u201cactuary\u201d as the trusted advisors in financial risk, but with more creativity and innovation. I believe one of the key positives of our profession is that it attracts really bright people. We should focus on continuing to make the profession attractive to the brightest and best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>6. Innovative Research<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A greater focus on truly innovative research. We live in exponentially changing times. Let\u2019s be at the forefront of change and bring a creative, innovative mindset to our work underpinned by relevant cutting-edge research.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What can the actuarial profession do to remain relevant well into the future? Here are a few thoughts: 1. Perpetual Learning Going forward, I think, there needs to be a greater focus on \u201con demand learning or upskilling\u201d and accessibility to resources as and when needed for learning on the job. Eg understanding and applying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-future-of-the-actuarial-profession"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":52,"label":"Future of the Actuarial Profession"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/proactuary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/futuristic-humanoid-robot-1024x585.jpg",1024,585,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Mark Farrell FIA PhD","author_link":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/author\/proact007\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":52,"name":"Future of the Actuarial Profession","slug":"future-of-the-actuarial-profession","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":52,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":52,"category_count":4,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Future of the Actuarial Profession","category_nicename":"future-of-the-actuarial-profession","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14542,"href":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/14542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proactuary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}