Lisa Renton
Actuarial Director
5th Sep 2025
The rise of the Commercial Pricing Actuary in an algorithmic world.
Actuaries aren’t what they used to be - and that’s a good thing.
Traditionally viewed as the technical experts behind the scenes, actuaries have historically been associated with spreadsheets, reserving models, and risk calculations. Actuaries carrying out these more traditional actuarial disciplines had all too often historically been anchored in the “back office”. But the landscape has changed. As data and AI transform the insurance market, actuaries are increasingly stepping into business-critical, front-facing roles, helping drive strategy, shape insurance products, and inform decisions.
I’ve seen this shift first hand.
From back office to business driver
Over my career, my roles have adapted to meet the changing business needs. I began my career in traditional actuarial roles, but over time, the requests for my input as an Actuary expanded. A growing demand from a previous Chief Underwriting Officer for actuarial input into strategic insight led to me being appointed to create a non-traditional Actuarial Business Analytics function. An example of bringing actuarial expertise directly into the front office.
And I’m not alone in this journey. Across the market, actuaries are moving into roles once considered out of reach, including underwriting, portfolio management, broking, and even executive leadership (Ki’s CEO Mark Allan, for instance, is an actuary himself).
The world is beginning to see actuaries not just as technical problem-solvers, but as commercial leaders. At Ki, this is where the Commercial Pricing team comes alive.
But don’t you have an algorithm?
Yes. At the heart of Ki is a powerful (and Lloyd’s first) Algorithmic Underwriting model.
Ki was born out of a desire to challenge the inefficiencies of a 330+ year-old market, building a digital-first, data-led, algorithmic insurer from the ground up. Today, our Algorithmic team are a cross-functional group of actuaries, engineers, data scientists and product specialists who build, maintain and develop the digital broker platform and machine learning models underpinning our algorithmic risk selection.
But here’s the truth: algorithms don’t run the business on their own.
You still need human insight – context, judgement, challenge – to make better decisions. That’s exactly where the Commercial Pricing team steps in. A fundamentally important role to the success of the Ki, the Commercial Pricing Team steps into the “front office” to bring the technical actuarial expertise with market knowledge.
A fork in the road: the bridge between underwriting and data science
In the world of AI, as a Pricing Actuary in the London Market, often your specialism can take two main paths:
- The technical route: Deep in the data science, model development, and machine learning.
- The commercial route: Working alongside underwriters and brokers, in the deal level detail, to drive business outcomes with data-led insight from technical model output.
The Commercial Pricing Team are Actuaries at a unique intersection combining these skillsets to be the bridge between two worlds that often struggle to speak the same language: underwriting and coders. At Ki we bring commercial insight overlayed with technical actuarial analytics and data science knowledge. We work hand-in-hand with underwriting teams, partnering on deal-level pricing, program assessments, and new class exploration. At the same time, we act as strategic challengers and collaborators with the Algorithmic team, providing input to help refine models, ensuring commercial nuance is captured, robust technical challenge, and advocating for the realities that raw data might miss.
Here’s what we focus on:
Commercial strategy
New class of business? We build and research the initial pricing model.
Large complex deals? We deep-dive into performance.
Uncertain metrics? We separate signal from noise and guide direction.
We work with Portfolio Underwriting to support deal-level analysis, providing technical actuarial overlay for positive strategic decisions.
Bringing insight to algorithmic development
Data is powerful, but not perfect. We bring SME class-level knowledge and market context to improve algorithmic risk selection. Not through coding, but through informed challenge and continual iteration.
Governance and oversight
As Actuaries, we bring rigour, professionalism, and structure – building confidence in decisions across both underwriting and model development.
The future of the actuary
Well, it won’t be the last time that the role of actuaries change and adapt to a modernising world. The actuarial profession is evolving – and it should – each step assessing where we bring value to the business. Our value in today’s world isn’t only in technical modelling, but also in bringing analytical firepower to commercial decision-making.
At Ki, I’m proud and excited to lead a team that is part of this evolution. The Commercial Pricing Actuary may once have been a niche. Now, it’s a necessity.
Where will it go from here? That is up to all of us in the market. But one thing is clear: that those who can bridge both tech and trade will thrive in the future of insurance. And actuaries are perfectly placed to do just that.
Let’s continue the conversation. If you’re a fellow Actuary navigating the shift, an Underwriter embracing data science or Tech expert building the future, please reach out as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Open roles in Pricing
Head of Commercial Pricing