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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.

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Lisa Rention

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.

From back office to business driver

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How the algorithm works

Yes. At the heart of Ki is a powerful (and Lloyd&#8217;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 &#8211; context, judgement, challenge &#8211; 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.

But don’t you have an algorithm? 

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: 
<ul>
<li aria-setsize="-1" data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="3" data-list-defn-props="{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1">The technical route: Deep in the data science, model development, and machine learning. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-setsize="-1" data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="3" data-list-defn-props="{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}" data-aria-posinset="2" data-aria-level="1">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.  </li>
</ul>
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:

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 &#8211; and it should &#8211; 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.

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Our people

Open roles in Pricing

The rise of the Commercial Pricing Actuary in an algorithmic world{{.}}

Actuarial in an algorithmic world

Jacques was previously President &amp; CEO of PartnerRe, retiring in March 2024. A highly experienced global leader in the (re)insurance sector, Jacques has also held a range of senior leadership roles at Chubb, latterly as Group Chief Underwriting Officer, and spent time as a Senior Adviser at the Bermuda Monetary Authority. He currently holds a number of Non-Executive roles including Brit Re and Novel.
Mark Allan, CEO of Ki, said: “We are delighted to welcome Jacques to the Ki board. His deep experience in leading underwriting organisations will complement our focus on digital-first algorithmic underwriting. As we evolve our data-driven underwriting and drive digital transformation, we will benefit from his experience in guiding our strategy and focus to deliver sustainable and scalable underwriting for Ki and its partners.”

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Jacques Bonneau

“Ki has already made a significant impact on the market, demonstrating the potential of technology to enhance underwriting and provide genuine value to brokers and clients. I look forward to working with Mark and the team, sharing my insights as Ki continues to evolve, innovate and grow its offering.”

Ki appoints Jacques Bonneau as Chair

Ki, the algorithmically-powered Lloyd’s digital follow platform, is delighted to announce a partnership with QBE and welcome them as a capacity partner on its platform.
This partnership with QBE is another major milestone for Ki following its move to become a standalone Fairfax company earlier this month and creates significant further momentum in the market’s adoption of algorithmic digital follow.
QBE capacity will be available on the Ki platform from 3 February 2025, for business incepting from 1 March 2025, across eleven open market classes of business: Cargo, Contingency, Cyber, D&amp;O, Energy Midstream, Energy Upstream, FI, Hull, US PI, Property NA and Property WW. Partner capacity is being introduced to the Contingency class for the first time at Ki.
The launch of the QBE capacity will coincide with Ki growing its overall open market follow capacity with its current partners. Together, these enhancements mean brokers will be able to access larger line sizes across more classes of business from five Lloyd’s syndicates on the Ki platform.
Today’s announcement further supports Ki’s goal of delivering efficient, high-quality digital follow capacity to the Lloyd’s market, bringing value to brokers and their clients.
Mark Allan, CEO of Ki, said: “We are proud to launch our partnership with QBE by adding their capacity to the Ki platform. QBE is a highly respected business in the specialty insurance market, with significant scale across the London, US and International markets. Their enthusiasm to partner with Ki reinforces our shared vision regarding the importance of seamless digital trading for the future of the specialty insurance marketplace.
We are also pleased to be expanding capacity with our existing partners. Offering brokers capacity from five syndicates is another positive step in Ki’s continued commitment to the London market and our mission to drive innovation and digitisation within the insurance industry.”
Jason Harris, CEO at QBE International, said: “As the insurance market continues to evolve, we are pleased to be partnering with Ki and its digital offering.  Digital follow is driving positive outcomes for the market, brokers and insureds by providing faster access to high quality capacity and more certainty of placement and complements traditional underwriting. We anticipate significant growth taking place over the next decade in this space and, as a market leader, look forward to collaborating with Ki to drive increased digitisation and efficiency throughout the entire risk journey.”

Ki enters partnership with QBE and expands digital follow capacity

Ki welcomes QBE capacity, offering even more diverse capacity for London brokers

Ki was created in 2020 and started writing business through its Syndicate 1618 in 2021. Since then, it has grown and evolved significantly to become an algorithmic underwriting platform offering follow capacity from a growing number of syndicates, with over $1 billion of GWP written in 2024.
As a standalone company, Ki will continue to focus on its vision: becoming the market leading digital and data led specialty insurance business, whilst helping to make Lloyd’s the most efficient market for specialty insurance in the world.
Ki has appointed Asta Managing Agency Limited (“Asta”) as Managing Agent, providing Ki with expert support in this critical role for the business.
The change to corporate structure and operations will not impact how brokers trade with Ki or its appetite in any class of business. Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited and funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities committed $500m of capital in 2020 to support Ki and enable the business to grow rapidly to significant scale. Blackstone and Fairfax will continue as Ki’s shareholders.
Mark Allan, CEO of Ki, commented: “Ki has become one of the most successful insurtech start-ups in our sector. In the space of four years, we have seen real momentum build behind our business model and we have now reached the scale to become standalone. We have helped brokers and clients seamlessly place complex specialty business at Lloyd’s with our market-leading platform. As Ki embarks on the next chapter of its growth, our autonomy, alongside the partnership with Asta, will enable us to focus on expanding our support of our partner brokers and accelerating the development of our algorithmic underwriting capabilities.
As a standalone company within Fairfax, we will be even better placed to achieve our potential and we are excited by the opportunity to further innovate in our offering to brokers and clients in years to come.”
Lorraine Harfitt, CEO of Asta, said: “We are delighted to partner with Ki as it embarks on this exciting new chapter.  Asta’s independent third-party platform allows us to focus exclusively on delivering for our clients, helping them achieve their strategic ambitions. Working with Ki on this significant transition to Asta hosting Syndicate 1618 underscores our commitment to fostering innovation and evolution in the market.  We look forward to continuing our work with the Ki team through 2025 and beyond.”

Ki completes separation to become standalone company within the Fairfax Group

Ki completes separation

The specialty insurance market is steeped in tradition that has influenced its working ways ever since those early days. It’s this history that has made London one of the world’s best and most experienced markets for specialty risks.
But the digital revolution and the rapid take-up of AI have the potential to re-shape many industries. The insurance markets are no exception; these technologies will have a profound impact upon the way that risks are underwritten.
The creation of Ki — a digital underwriting platform for the Lloyd’s market — was first announced in May 2020. The aim was to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes for brokers to place their follow capacity, after arranging lead terms for specialty risks. The solution: building an algorithm, developed with support from University College London (UCL), to underwrite risks and automatically quote for business through an always-available digital platform, built with Google Cloud.
Brokers log in to the Ki platform, fill out some details about the risk and can instantly generate a follow line, in as little as 10 seconds. The algorithm behind the platform underwrites the risk and determines how much capacity to offer to that risk.
To deliver this innovation, a first for the London market, Ki raised USD500M of committed capital from two backers, Blackstone and Fairfax.

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Ki launched the platform towards the end of 2020, ready for risks incepting from January 1, 2021. Initially the capacity offered was from Ki’s own Syndicate 1618, which was the first digital syndicate on the market — and which quickly became one of the largest start-up syndicates in the history of Lloyd’s. In 2024, the platform expanded to offer capacity from other Lloyd’s Syndicates including Aspen, Beazley, and Travelers. This meant that Ki has not only revolutionized the speed of underwriting risks, but also the way brokers can access significant volumes of capacity, helping them efficiently cover risks for their clients.

<h3>Underwriting risk in less than 10 seconds</h3>
Ki, at its very heart, is an underwriting business. But its unique feature is the way that the algorithm works together with human underwriting expertise to create one of the market’s fastest, most consistent underwriting processes. A quote can be offered to a broker within around 10 seconds of them inputting the risk information into Ki’s platform — a far cry from the two- to three-week lead time common in the market
Ki’s algorithmic underwriting strategy is based on two core concepts: it is data-driven, and technology enabled. Specialty insurance is inherently complex, with subtle nuances. To accommodate this, Ki’s algorithmic strategy sits alongside its wider underwriting strategy. 
In 2023, Ki wrote USD877M in gross written premium, delivered a combined ratio of 89.7% (a nearly 7-point improvement on 2022), and USD101M of profit. This strong performance, in only its third year of trading, validates Ki’s approach to digital underwriting.
<h3>
Why is algorithmic underwriting good for insurance?</h3>
Algorithmic underwriting is beneficial for the insurer, the client, and those who artfully curate coverage — the brokers.
<h4>
For insurers:</h4>
Data-driven approaches are consistent and focus solely on the relevant information to evaluate the risk. They are not swayed by personal observation, preference, or bias. And the offer of follow capacity can be as bullish or conservative as the data tells you to be.
As a software system, Ki’s underwriting algorithm can evaluate multiple data points simultaneously for a fast, robust, and accurate underwriting assessment. The algorithm can also be pressure-tested against a variety of conditions, such as natural catastrophes and market cycles. This is much harder to do using human underwriters.
Auditing and optimizing are much easier with an algorithm and digital approach, helping to refine and improve continuously.
Scalability is another huge benefit. Ki’s model is more flexible due to its end-to-end automation made possible by algorithms, allowing it to adjust smoothly to both soft or hard market conditions. 
And importantly, Ki’s underwriting algorithm can also incorporate a diverse set of data points from within and outside the business, ranging from portfolio data at the point of quote to property characteristics derived from satellite data on individual properties. This allows Ki’s underwriting to be both accurate and efficient.
<h4>For brokers and clients:</h4>
Because of the accuracy and continuous optimization of the algorithm, Ki can offer increased line sizes and open up capacity across the portfolio in less risky geographies or classes to offset higher-risk policies.
The firm prides itself on being easy to work with. The platform is available to brokers 24/7 and ready to quote consistent and reliable follow capacity from four Lloyd’s of London syndicates — Aspen, Beazley, Ki 1618, and Travelers.
Brokers are offered follow capacity for eligible classes every time, as long as one condition is met: a &#8220;nominated syndicate&#8221; is on the slip. A nominated syndicate is a Lloyd’s syndicate that Ki recognizes as a leader in its respective class of underwriting.
For brokers and clients alike, certainty of renewal is attractive, particularly when facing challenging market conditions. And if you compound that with increased capacity being available when policies come to renew, in most cases, Ki is a sustainable partner for a long-term mutually beneficial relationship.
Ki brings significant efficiencies to brokers with its fast response times by providing them robust follow capacity underwriting with minimal involvement on their part, so they can focus on the lead placement and negotiating (coverage, cost) on behalf of their clients.
<h3>The technology</h3>
Using data to understand risks isn’t new, but what is new is the access to cutting-edge data science and machine learning. And at Ki, a healthy dose of specialty market expertise is added to create something truly unique that is tailored to the market dynamics at any given time.
From its very beginnings, when Ki collaborated with leading academic talent from UCL, the company’s proposition has been powered by cutting-edge algorithmic science. The Ki algorithm of today is enabled by more than 50 Machine Learning (ML) models and maintained and iterated in-house by a multidisciplinary team. And as mentioned above, it can draw in data from a wide range of internal and external sources.
Ki also uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to help structure the vast quantities of data locked in policy and claims documents. This is now being leveraged to provide richer data sets for its ML models.
Ki, and its diverse and talented teams, are committed to continuous innovation and often contribute to academic research, for example, by recently publishing research on simulating the specialty insurance market.
<h3>The future of algorithmic underwriting</h3>
There’s a huge range of opportunities for algorithmic underwriting, from small efficiencies across the value chain to further disrupt traditional processes and enhance the human expertise that will still be important to have. As algorithmic underwriting gets more sophisticated, it will allow an insurer to holistically manage a portfolio across classes at the point of quote. This is difficult for human led syndicates to deliver because of the disparate nature of their data sets, people, and processes. Making better individual risk selections will have a positive impact on the loss ratio, resulting in a portfolio that’s well balanced and profitable.
Utilizing LLMs to tap into the vast pool of unstructured data available in insurance will provide a huge informational boost to algorithmic underwriting and portfolio management. LLMs will also replace notoriously time consuming, repetitive tasks such as wording reviews and will allow process-heavy work to be streamlined, making it more accurate and more efficient. Ultimately, all of this will reduce expenses and improve an insurer’s combined ratio.

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Mark Allan

There’s additional value to unlock for brokers, clients, and insurers by using technology. At Ki, we’ve focused on revolutionizing the follow capacity placement, but we are open minded to where else our technology can be beneficial to the market, and we are exploring this with our partners. And of course, data. Data is powerful, and it’ll become imperative to leverage AI, arming brokers with analytics, allowing them to make data-led decisions with their clients.

<h3>The Ki difference</h3>
While algorithmic underwriting underpins Ki’s proposition, the company balances and complements this with an expert understanding of the market. Ki’s underwriting approach is powered by technology, but it’s overseen and perfected by people who are specialists in insurance, who bring an understanding of events not in the data’ and of the real-time market dynamic shifts that occur. Ki’s teams are a blend of technology and data talent, working collaboratively with more traditional insurance roles such as class specific underwriters, account management, and business development to build relationships in the market.
It&#8217;s a unique approach in the market with a truly scalable proposition rooted in underwriting discipline and a digital-first environment.
This article was created for <a href="https://www.ajg.com/gallagherre/news-and-insights/2024/august/global-insurtech-report-q2-2024/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gallagher Re&#8217;s Global InsurTech Report</a>, August 2024.

Lloyd’s of London and Ki Insurance: Transforming a 336-year-old market

Future of AI in underwriting

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Award acceptance

Ki was set up to pioneer the digitisation of the Lloyd&#8217;s market, and through the dedication and expertise of our team, we&#8217;ve created a truly scalable proposition rooted in underwriting discipline and a digital-first environment.
Ki is delighted by this recognition and will continue to drive forward innovation for, and with, the market.
Photo &#8211; Mark Allan, CEO and Alan Tua, Director of Algorithmic Underwriting.

Most Innovative Insurer 2024

Kelly joined Ki in January 2024 and her focus is on building a high performing people team and function that is focused on creating an environment where the Ki team can do the best work of their careers. A people team that acts as enablers, architects, facilitators, and drivers of change &#8211; and is set up to support Ki on its growth journey. 
Prior to joining Ki, Kelly has had a variety of leadership roles in the financial service and insurance sectors with brands like Direct Line Insurance, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority as well as roles in other sectors such as retail. 
On joining, Kelly says ‘I’m really excited to be working at Ki during this pivotal phase of its development and there’s a lot going on! Ki’s culture and the unique combination of skillsets from both insurance and tech backgrounds is what gives us our edge. We are building something truly amazing, and I joined to be part of that’.

Ki brings on Kelly Madeley as Director of People

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Kelly joins Ki

As General Counsel and Compliance Director, Jo is responsible for building and leading the Legal, Compliance, Internal Audit and Company Secretarial teams.
The General Counsel acts as a trusted adviser to Ki’s CEO, Mark Allan, the Executive team and the Ki Board, finding solutions to help Ki continue to disrupt by using technology and data, in a responsible and sustainable way. 
Jo has spent most of her career working in insurance, first as an insurance and reinsurance litigator at law firms Eversheds and Clyde &amp; Co, before moving into the general insurance market. There Jo worked for Hiscox Syndicate 33 and US insurer ACE (now Chubb).  Her next career move took her into the world of life assurance, when she became General Counsel at FTSE250 Just Group, before spending several years outside insurance working as Chief Legal &amp; Governance Officer and Company Secretary at another FTSE250, the global trading fintech IG Group.  As a member of Executive Committees and Executive Risk Committees, Jo has led global Legal, Compliance, Company Secretarial and Internal Audit teams through periods of intense growth and change, advising Boards and their Committees, as well as Executive management, on governance, legal and regulatory issues.
“I was attracted to Ki by its incredible success disrupting the uber-traditional Lloyd’s of London insurance market” Jo commented about her arrival at Ki “as well as its deep appreciation of the importance of the business partnering functions in my world in continuing to build on that success. My experience in both the insurance and fintech worlds gives me the ideal skillset to help Ki to fulfil its potential”.

Ki recruits Jo Nayler as General Counsel and Compliance Director

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Joanna joins Ki

Jan’s role will centre around leading the growing financial function for Ki as well as being a key driver across transformation projects that will shape the strategic direction of the business.
Previously to joining Ki, Jan garnered a wealth of experience in financial services businesses across the globe. Most notably he spent 20 years with Fairfax, Ki‘s lead shareholder, including 14 years as Chief Financial Officer for the Odyssey Group.
Jan feels that “Ki&#8217;s unique value proposition is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to help shape the strategic direction of a business with seemingly endless possibilities. I find the culture at Ki to be very special. The positive atmosphere is contagious and inspires creative thinking, something I believe is critical to our success”.

Ki welcomes Jan Christiansen as Chief Financial Officer

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Jan joins Ki

Lisa will be responsible in bringing together the actuarial talent within Ki, to form a new actuarial function, core to any successful insurance company. The function will focus on traditional actuarial activity such as reserving and pricing, but there will also be a strategic Corporate Actuarial team, to support performance analysis and profit driving strategic topics.
To fulfil her appetite for new learning experiences and challenges, Lisa has held various roles across her career both in traditional and non-traditional Actuarial roles. And unusually, Lisa started her career on the underwriting side in Energy before making the leap into Actuarial, working across all lines of business in the Lloyd’s market, both direct and reinsurance.
Lisa comments “There is so much about Ki that from the start I have found intriguing and exciting from the outside looking in &#8211; the way Ki has challenged how a traditional Lloyds market can transact business, utilising innovative tech solutions, and most importantly the incredible people and partnerships with the likes of UCL and Google. There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be part of this continuing journey, having already seen a monumental growth trajectory to date. I was excited to join Ki to build out a forward-thinking Actuarial function in a culture of “how can we do it better”.

News.

The rise of the Commercial Pricing Actuary in an algorithmic world.