In brief
Insurers moving AI from experiments to company-wide use should choose models by how costly a mistake would be. Thomas Holmes of Akur8 argues that for pricing, where unexplained rate changes hurt customers, regulators and retention, transparent and stable models beat clever black boxes. Success depends on shared, auditable processes and one source of truth for rates, not just better algorithms.
The central tension is flexibility versus control. Holmes says a company-wide rollout needs an 'opinionated' framework with set steps and checks, even though it limits individual power users. He applies the same logic to build-versus-buy and to the gap between actuaries and IT: build only what is differentiating, and remove the retyping and handoffs that cause errors.
Facts
Stated by the speakers. Each quote matches the transcript, which shows what was said, not that it is true.
Akur8 provides software for non-life insurers to support pricing and reserving work, according to host Matthew DeMello, with over 300 customers in over forty countries.
“Akur8 provides software for non-life insurers to support pricing and reserving work for over 300 customers across over forty countries.”
0:00:17 · Matthew DeMello · Akur8 customers
Thomas Holmes describes Akur8 as a French company with an Italian head of product that is growing in the United States.
“Akur8 is a French company with an Italian head of product that's growing in the United States.”
0:04:19 · Thomas Holmes · Akur8 background
Matthew DeMello says the AI in Business podcast has nearly a million annual listeners.
“With nearly a million annual listeners, AI in Business is the go-to destination for enterprise leaders navigating real-world AI adoption.”
0:01:34 · Matthew DeMello · Podcast audience
Thomas Holmes says insurance pricing regulation in Europe is generally very relaxed.
“insurance regulation around pricing is very, very relaxed in Europe in general”
0:07:34 · Thomas Holmes · European regulation
Thomas Holmes says credit score is not used as a rating variable in European insurance pricing.
“credit score is obviously not something used in Europe.”
0:07:34 · Thomas Holmes · Rating variables
Thomas Holmes says European insurers mostly do not have to file their pricing models with regulators.
“your models, for the most part, don't have to be filed”
0:08:01 · Thomas Holmes · Model filing
Thomas Holmes says European insurers are trending back toward very transparent pricing models.
“they're trending back towards very transparent models for pricing”
0:08:01 · Thomas Holmes · Transparent models
Thomas Holmes says refitting complex models can produce rate impacts on some policyholders that insurers cannot explain.
“you're going to have some people that have impacts that you just can't explain”
0:09:43 · Thomas Holmes · Model refitting
Thomas Holmes uses Netflix recommendations to illustrate a case where inconsistent model output has low consequences, unlike insurance pricing.
“And for something like a vastly different Netflix recommendation, that's fine.”
0:09:43 · Thomas Holmes · Model consequences
Thomas Holmes gives a 200% rate increase caused by a refit model finding a different niche as an example of an unexplainable pricing result.
“why did this person get 200% rate increase? And the answer is the models did something different, they found some different niche spot.”
0:09:43 · Thomas Holmes · Rate increases
Thomas Holmes says wider rate dislocation causes more policyholders to leave, and that retention is extremely valuable to insurers.
“everyone insurance knows that the wider your dislocation, the more people leave, and retention is gold for insurers.”
0:10:15 · Thomas Holmes · Policyholder retention
Thomas Holmes says no single AI governance framework exists.
“there is no single AI governance framework. There just simply isn't there.”
0:13:38 · Thomas Holmes · AI governance
Thomas Holmes recalls a hundred-question model governance questionnaire in which about 60% of the questions did not apply.
“answer the these these hundred questions about your model. And about 60% of them were were NA.”
0:13:38 · Thomas Holmes · Governance questionnaires
Thomas Holmes defines an opinionated framework as one customized to an industry rather than a general algorithm.
“it is customized to your industry and not just throwing out this this general algorithm for for use”
0:15:58 · Thomas Holmes · Opinionated frameworks
Thomas Holmes says he has built software tools as an actuary but is not a good software engineer.
“As an actuary, I have built tools. I am not a very good software engineer.”
0:17:01 · Thomas Holmes · In-house tools
Thomas Holmes says the maintenance costs and technical debt of in-house tools are greatly underestimated.
“maintenance costs and this technical debt are just criminally underrated.”
0:17:01 · Thomas Holmes · Technical debt
Thomas Holmes says companies should build in-house only things that are proprietary and highly differentiated.
“there are things to build in-house, and those should be the things that are proprietary and highly differentiated.”
0:17:31 · Thomas Holmes · Build versus buy
Thomas Holmes says he has not seen anyone rebuild Microsoft Excel, using it to illustrate not rebuilding commodity tools.
“I haven't seen anyone rebuild Excel. Everyone uses it.”
0:18:00 · Thomas Holmes · Build versus buy
Thomas Holmes says actuaries asked where their rating plan lives may point to an Excel file, showing there is no single source of truth.
“When I go to an actuary and ask them, Where is your rating plan? Well, it's an Excel.”
0:20:11 · Thomas Holmes · Rating plans
Thomas Holmes says re-programming actuarial rates for the rating engine causes errors through handoffs and re-implementation of rating logic.
“It's a huge source of error because there's not only a a handoff, there's re-implementation of of rating logic”
0:21:11 · Thomas Holmes · Rate re-implementation
Thomas Holmes says actuaries should own the rating order of calculation throughout the process, with IT handling data in and out and implementation testing.
“But that rating order of calculation can, and I think should be owned by the actuaries the entire way through the process.”
0:21:53 · Thomas Holmes · Actuary ownership