Description: Decentralized finance, or DeFi, is an emerging financial system powered by blockchain technology. This research report aims to introduce actuaries to DeFi and help them develop a solid understanding of DeFi. It will begin with addressing “what is DeFi?” by providing an introduction on blockchains and DeFi. It will then discuss in further detail the key characteristics, applications, opportunities, and risks of DeFi. After providing the foundation, this report will discuss the potential adoption of DeFi and its interaction with the current financial system (sometime referred to as traditional finance for contrast with DeFi), and the implications for practicing and aspiring actuaries. In addition, a glossary of terms used in DeFi and a brief history of the development of DeFi have been included in the appendix.

Description: This report explores the adoption and impact of artificial intelligence and large language models in the Greater China insurance industry, drawing from surveys and case studies.

Description: Leveraging advanced technologies like Generative AI is essential for insurers looking to compete and drive business growth. In this high-level webcast, we discuss the transformative potential of Generative AI in actuarial work and how it empowers actuaries to become more efficient and effective.

Description: This project enhances the current understanding of cyber risks in the smart home ecosystem from the insurance industry's perspective. In particular, the quantitative framework and pricing strategies developed in this project can be immediately adopted/adapted by actuaries to price the cyber risks for smart homes, a fast-growing insurance market.

Description: Come gain insights into the techniques used in Machine Learning and its applications. You'll discover the key technological advances in recent years which were behind and ultimately facilitated the breakthroughs including ChatGPT/GenAI. It's time to uncover real-world use cases where AI models and their transformative impact on our lives.

Description: This session will examine bias from a social science perspective. It will discuss the three types of systemic biases using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) model. The NIST model details the three types as historical bias, societal bias, and institutionalbias. The session will also provide several examples of each type to provide a framework for identifying the social structure of bias.

Description: This report captures expert insights from a March 2025 roundtable on how generative AI is shaping actuarial work and insurance industry practices.

Description: After International Accounting Standards Board (“IASB”) issued International Financial Reporting Standard No. 17 – Insurance Contracts (“IFRS 17”), IASB received much feedback and suggestions for improvement. As a result, in early 2019, IASB made limited changes to IFRS 17. The presentation will briefly discuss the main contents and effects of those changes.

Description: The Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute released a report summarizing the InsurTech Insights Americas conference held May 24-26, 2022. InsurTech, a concept created 10-15 years ago, is maturing and currently western financial markets are recording a downward trend while inflation is rising. While this downward pressure on financing makes investors more cautious, stakeholders are working towards partnerships to improve the overall effectiveness and purpose of the insurance industry.

Description: The recent wave of innovation in GenAI has unlocked an entirely new category of AI applications. Whereas AI has traditionally focused on automation and predictions, LLM’s and Generative AI give us the opportunity to create AI applications that act as copilots. This emphasis on contelligence and empowering knowledge workers has already begun to change the way work is done. High expertise knowledge workers such as actuaries will be able to use this wave of AI Apps to make better decisions and dedicate more of their attention to the parts of the role that require domain expertise and judgement. Join Charles Morris, Microsoft’s Chief Data Scientist for Financial Services, as he talks about the latest advancements in this space and the opportunities it creates for expert knowledge workers. Charles Morris is the Chief Data Scientist for Financial Services at Microsoft. Charles has deep expertise in the financial services domain and works with many of the world’s leading asset managers, banks, insurance companies, and financial platforms to develop and execute their AI strategies.Currently, Charles is focused on applying Generative AI to financial services and advising many top financial institutions in building their own copilots and reimagining their businesses.Charles is a data scientist and machine learning engineer by profession and an expert in MLOps. Before joining Microsoft, Charles practiced data science, machine learning, and cloud engineering in the asset management industry. He has been a featured keynote speaker at several prestigious events and forums and is a highly sought after public speaker in the domain of AI and Innovation.