An Actuarial Engineering Perspective: Why Actuarial Science and IT Skills Must Converge

Actuaries are used to perform complex computations for a long time. Be it for reserving, pricing, mortality analysis or ALM among others, several skills are inherent to the role of actuaries (as data management, predictive modelling, coding, operationalization, reporting,...) in their goal to support decision-making processes. With the emergence of data science and new technologies, actuaries must extent their tool box in order to improve the efficiency, robustness and overall performance of their analysis. In this presentation, we introduce new trends and techniques that actuarial engineers should master (at least some of them): (i) creative data sourcing and management: use of external (open) data, Natural Languages Processing and features engineering are key skills to complete databases and avoid the "shit in, shit out" effect.(ii) use of advanced predictive modelling techniques: machine learning offers new opportunities but must be handled with care to avoid overfitting or black-box effect. Mastering machine learning techniques, cross-validation and model interpretability tools is essential. (iii) upgraded coding and operationalization skills: open sources software like R or Python allow actuarial engineers to implement their own algorithms and develop robust tools/application supporting their computation. Mastering these software together with e.g. GitHub Copilot to accelerate coding with AI, container tools (e.g. Docker) to operationalize computation engines or Sphinx for automatic documentation will bring actuaries to an absolute other level.(iv) innovative reporting tools: Excel remains essential but other tools like PowerBI, R/Shiny or Python Dash could be quick wins for actuaries to improve their reporting and make it available to the management. We strongly believe that there is a sweet spot for actuarial engineers between business and IT to develop robust actuarial and financial computation engines improving the decision-making process.  Thanks to their business knowledge, actuaries will be better place than any profession to helps insurance companies thrive should they improve their technological skills.