The increasing availability of big data and the use of data science are changing how insights are being derived. In addition the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries has also recently launched its data science certificate. The objective of the survey was to investigate how the insurance industry is utilising data science, with a focus on application and use cases within an actuarial or broader finance and risk management context. We investigate the strategy with regards to data science and the operating model within which data science is used including the types of tools and techniques being used.
Our initial research includes first line actuarial functions. We also include themes around the technical nature of machine learning techniques being used as well as discussions around software, types of data and wider considerations including risks, risk management, governance, and ethics related to data science. We investigate trends impacting the skill set required by those working within data science. We intend to use the anonymised results from our benchmarking survey summarising our observations and key findings from the study to bring you an up to date understanding on the use of data science in actuarial functions.