At Pinnacle Actuarial Resources, we focus on innovation and thought leadership with a goal to make sure our clients remain ahead of the technological, economic and related forces shaping our profession and the insurance industry. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are two of those forces.

Pinnacle Actuarial Resources is dedicated to keeping our clients up-to-date on relevant regulatory, administrative and economic conditions that impact their businesses. Recently, the Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) of California issued guidance regarding lower-than-anticipated workers compensation (WC) system loss costs. On September 5, the insurance commissioner of California approved all of the WCIRB’s proposed changes. The most current pure premium WCIRB filing, dated August 20, 2019 recommended a 5.4% decrease in average advisory loss costs, effective January 1, 2020.

My colleague at Pinnacle Actuarial Resources, Inc., Gary Wang, often says that he’s lucky. As a consulting actuary in the field of predictive analytics, Gary lives the exact life he envisioned for himself when he was a kid. I understand how Gary feels. We are fortunate to work in an exciting and expanding industry absolutely filled with opportunity. We get to work with great clients and tackle interesting projects on a daily basis. It’s an exceptional time to be in predictive analytics and I agree with Gary: We are incredibly lucky.

The worlds of gambling and insurance are similar in many ways. Both are built upon elements of probability, modeling and quantification of risk. Both use a variety of means to attract individuals to participate. Professional gamblers are well informed as to the odds of one play versus another; an understanding of modelling can improve those odds to improve the chances of winning. Professional underwriters and actuaries understand premiums must be adequate to pay future claims and expenses; an understanding of modelling helps quantify risk and improve the ratemaking process.

It is certainly nothing new that data privacy and questions over how different organizations collect, maintain, and utilize an individual’s data is a hot topic among consumers, lawmakers, and companies alike. Past data breaches from several well-known companies have raised the antennae on the topic, and ongoing questions around what data is being stored and how it is being used by other high-profile corporations continue to draw attention.