Joanna Chardon, Chief Strategy and Product Officer at Akur8, sheds light on Akur8's vision for 2024, aimed at revolutionizing insurance pricing amidst the challenges of algorithmic fairness, evolving customer expectations, and resource constraints. Joanna unveils Akur8's roadmap, driven by innovation, commitment to excellence, and a customer-centric approach, poised to reshape the landscape of insurance pricing in the year ahead.

What challenges do you see for insurance pricing in 2024?

In 2024, insurance pricing faces three pivotal challenges: algorithmic fairness, meeting customer expectations, and addressing resource constraints for operational efficiency. Ensuring that pricing algorithms remain impartial and free from bias and discrimination is a critical aspect of algorithmic fairness. Meeting customer expectations involves the delicate balance of providing immediacy, transparency, and fairness while maintaining competitive pricing models. Additionally, addressing resource constraints and streamlining operational efficiency in the face of complex data environments and talent recruitment and retention challenges will be essential.

To navigate these challenges effectively, insurance companies must embrace technological innovation, ethical considerations, and customer-centricity as guiding principles. This approach becomes crucial as many firms struggle with extensive legacy systems deeply integrated into their daily operations. Replacing or integrating these systems with cutting-edge technology is not just a choice but a necessity for staying competitive and attracting tech-savvy talent in the evolving landscape of the insurance industry.

In your opinion, what are the main benefits of Akur8?‍

As a former client, I've had the privilege of experiencing firsthand the numerous advantages that Akur8 offers. 

My journey as an executive and manager has taught me that people are inherently self-motivated and driven to excel in their work: allowing teams and individuals more autonomy usually encourages efficiency. However, autonomy should be subject to explicit boundaries. Clarity and constraints foster quality and performance. This philosophy is the essence of an excellence culture, and it's precisely what Akur8's platform facilitates. This transparency also extends across the organization, leading to well-informed decisions. 

Furthermore, Akur8 empowers teams to harness the potential of data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, transforming what was once a visionary concept into a practical and indispensable tool. In today's landscape, these technologies have transitioned from being pie-in-the-sky dreams to becoming integral to everyday operations. For actuaries, staying informed and proficient in these tools is essential.

What is your product vision for 2024?

In 2018, we recognized the limitations of existing technology in insurance pricing. Many products in the market were unable to meet the increasing demand for sophisticated and user-centric solutions. Custom systems, while capable, proved to be time-consuming to deploy and demanded complex maintenance and enhancements. Additionally, highly automated approaches often fell short during implementation and incurred substantial ongoing maintenance costs.

This realization led us to develop a unique technology. Over the past few years, our commitment to excellence and reliability has been the key to our success. We have focused on providing easy-to-navigate software with high levels of service and reliability, even in the face of growing competition from other providers.

Our goal for 2024 is to continue to deliver the world's best user experience for working with insurance data. We aim to empower pricing actuaries to ask and answer complex questions even without the need to master programming languages or statistical modeling, thus turning data into actionable insights. 

And today, Akur8 is more well-positioned than ever to continue its journey toward providing an end-to-end insurance pricing platform.

We are excited to announce the upcoming release of our first optimization module, catering to the needs of our most sophisticated customers in the EU market. Additionally, our team has started building a Pricing Engine to complement our existing solution to simplify processes and streamline workflows, enhancing efficiency and deployment agility.

In 2024, our key focus is also to provide a comprehensive experience to both existing and future customers in the United States, with the goal of creating a lasting impact on the insurance and pricing landscape in the U.S.

In conclusion, our journey continues in 2024 as we work towards making pricing processes seamless and hassle-free, further solidifying Akur8's position as a leader in the industry.

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