Description: The cloud inspires awe and fear in equal parts these days. There is a need to learn more, but there’s much information to learn and it may be difficult to know what to learn next. In this session, we’ll carve off a small corner of the cloud and make it your own. Setting up a Data Science Virtual Machine on Digital Ocean will be demonstrated. It’s the fastest way to get a data science development environment setup for your own use. Many of the topics and ideas covered will apply to almost all other cloud offerings. What use cases Digital Ocean is good for, and what use cases you should look elsewhere for, will also be discussed.

Description: This is the first in a series of calls for essays on the impact of AI on mortality and longevity. For this call for essays, we are interested in the impact of AI on mortality and longevity modeling, forecasting and prediction.

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: This study explores the use of geospatial imagery and high-resolution image technology in the property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry, focusing on improving risk determination through accurate building location data. It introduces new methods like structure footprints and high-resolution elevation information to enhance underwriting, rating, and claims settlement. The study includes two case studies: one on flood risk in Hillsborough County, Florida, and another on wildfire risk in three California communities, demonstrating the significant impact of precise location and elevation data on risk assessment and insurance premiums.

Description: One of the most effective ways to convey quantitative results is via data visualization. However, many times actuaries have been ineffective in doing this. In this session, you will see a demonstration of certain dataviz choices that make communicating results more effective in terms of graph type choice, graph element styles, colors and more. All examples will be in Excel-and doesn't require Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)! Nothing too fancy! I want to distribute working files to attendees before the session so they can follow along with how to build the graphs, make changes, etc. Graph choices will include line graph, tile grid map and jitter graph.

Description: The session begins with a brief introduction to Gen AI, including “what it is” and how to optimize outputs. Then, we will to provide some insight into what we are seeing within the Actuarial space – this would include the extent to which actuaries are using Gen AI on a day-to-day basis, how they are going about using it, and some predictions as to where this will go.

Description: This session will explore recent and historical advancements in computing relevant to actuarial analysis. We will provide a comprehensive overview of the current landscape, tracing the journey of how we arrived here and how actuaries are already harnessing these innovations. This session will primarily be focused on hardware and as software programming interfaces the latter, in effect, helps accelerate code and ease of access to specialized hardware. We will also examine optimization opportunities involving the intersection of the two.

Description: With the unprecedented proliferation in the size and complexity of data over the past decade, actuaries have invested considerable time and energy in the development of new skills and expertise in order to be able to understand and use “big data” to its fullest potential in the development of actuarial work product.

Description: This article explores strategies for optimizing actuarial models built on open system platforms. It begins by contrasting open and closed system modeling environments, emphasizing that users of open systems must take responsibility for in-house runtime optimization. The authors underscore the critical role that efficient, well-optimized models play in supporting a high-performing modeling team. To reinforce the techniques discussed, the article includes a case study focused on disability insurance modeling to offer practical insights.

Description: As data continues to become more robust and readily available, there has been a push in the actuarial field to transition away from Excel to SQL and Python native cloud-based platforms. While these platforms are widely used and powerful, they present challenges for the actuarial industry: Requiring processes to be production-ready from the onset, technical expertise for integration and robust documentation. Low-code tools provide a unique alternative solution, which works when the organization's operating model allows for actuarial and IT to work together, giving actuaries the flexibility they need while maintaining a level of control followed by the organization In this session, you will watch demonstrations that showcase low-code tools and their use case in the actuarial space. See how these low-barrier-to-entry tools can be leveraged to create robust processes. We will discuss solutions such as Alteryx and Dataiku and how low-code tools can integrate with coding languages such as Python to create more robust processes.