Modernizing Insurance Pricing From Excel to Explainable AI - Thomas Holmes of Akur8 (18 min)
- Release date: 2026-01-12
- Listen on Spotify: Open episode
- Episode description:
Today's guest is Thomas Holmes, Chief Actuary for North America at Akur8. Holmes focuses on how actuarial teams can modernize pricing and reserving with automation and AI while maintaining governance and actuarial soundness. Thomas joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss why pricing and reserving modernization is hard to execute in practice, and how insurers can adopt AI with the governance and explainability actuarial teams require. The conversation also covers starting with a clear problem statement, avoiding generic "bolt-on" AI approaches, and targeting small wins that deliver measurable workflow and cycle-time improvements. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast. This episode is sponsored by Akur8. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.
Summary
- 🚧 Excel Inertia: Decades of familiarity make Excel the default despite its opacity and fragility; modernization requires proving new tools are superior in governance and explainability.
- ⚠️ AI Skepticism: Generic AI fails insurance nuances where data ‘lies’; actuaries demand rigor, rejecting unproven models that lack actuarial soundness.
- 🔧 Workflow Overhaul: Avoid layering AI on legacy stacks—rebuild processes for control, repeatability, and true innovation while keeping proven elements.
- 🛡️ Governance Guardrails: Opinionated AI frameworks with clear guardrails prevent nightmares, ensuring explainability, oversight, and compliance.
- 🎯 Small Wins Strategy: Start with clear problems, measurable benefits, and targeted pilots to build cross-team trust and scale successfully.
Insights
Why do insurers still rely on Excel for pricing and reserving despite its hidden flaws?
Time: 3:38 – 4:40
Category: AI in Workforce DisruptionAnswer: Excel is perceived as transparent and flexible due to decades of familiarity, but it’s actually opaque, inflexible, and hard to govern. New AI tools must unequivocally outperform it in speed, transparency, reliability, and actuarial soundness to overcome this inertia. (Start at 3:38)
How does skepticism toward generic AI slow down actuarial modernization?
Time: 5:44 – 6:35
Category: AI-Driven Innovation EconomyAnswer: Actuaries distrust off-the-shelf AI because insurance data is nuanced and can ‘lie,’ requiring expert judgment that generic models overlook. This leads to failures when layering AI onto existing stacks without addressing real-world complexities. (Start at 5:44)
Why is layering AI on top of legacy tools like Excel a recipe for failure?
Time: 6:45 – 7:10
Category: AI in Workforce DisruptionAnswer: Stilted approaches fail to deliver true modernization; real value comes from ripping out brittle spreadsheet workflows and rebuilding with better control, auditability, and repeatability. This foundational shift enables effective AI integration. (Start at 6:45)
What makes an ‘opinionated framework’ essential for AI governance in insurance?
Time: 7:21 – 8:00
Category: AI Governance & LawsAnswer: AI’s flexibility and power create governance nightmares without guardrails; an opinionated approach defines specific uses, ensuring oversight, explainability, and actuarial rigor. This balances innovation with regulatory compliance. (Start at 7:21)
How can teams kickstart AI adoption without falling into FOMO traps?
Time: 8:26 – 9:48
Category: AI-Driven Innovation EconomyAnswer: Begin with a clear, specific problem statement rather than vague fears of missing out, pursue small wins to prove soundness, and select bespoke AI tools over generic ones. This builds momentum through measurable successes. (Start at 8:26)
Should insurers ‘reinvent the wheel’ when modernizing with AI?
Time: 9:58 – 11:25
Category: AI-Driven Innovation EconomyAnswer: Yes—evolve proven processes like pricing models from Excel into more capable, governed systems while retaining what works well. This unlocks new tools for comparison and analysis without starting from scratch. (Start at 9:58)
How do you align actuarial, IT, and leadership teams for AI success?
Time: 11:53 – 13:21
Category: AI Investment TrendsAnswer: Address actuarial soundness for experts, quantifiable benefits for leaders, and scalability/integration for IT. Open-minded listening to concerns ensures buy-in across functions, preventing implementation failures. (Start at 11:53)
Why do legacy insurers talk innovation but stick to the status quo?
Time: 13:49 – 15:03
Category: AI in Workforce DisruptionAnswer: Inertia and the high cost of change persist until pain from outdated processes becomes acute; quantifying benefits of replacement is hard, leading to two-faced attitudes where rhetoric outpaces action. (Start at 13:49)