A technically brilliant pricing model can still destroy value if it stalls on the way to production, according to InsurTech pricing specialist Akur8.
In a recent discussion for The Actuarial Angle, Akur8 chief actuarial officer Thomas Holmes and Akur8 senior solution architect Marianne Farmiga explored why cross-functional collaboration, not modelling skill, is increasingly the deciding factor in whether pricing work delivers commercial results.
Modern insurance pricing, Akur8 argues, is inherently cross-functional. A model must pass through data pipelines, product requirements, IT systems and governance processes before it reaches customers. Along the way, actuaries work alongside data scientists, underwriters, IT, product teams and external vendors, each with a different vocabulary and a different definition of success. The risk arises when each function optimises for its own lens. A robust model that cannot be deployed efficiently creates no value, while a rapid deployment that distorts actuarial intent introduces risk.
The firm’s first recommendation is discipline around objectives. Rather than arriving with a predefined solution, actuaries should articulate the outcome they need and explain the reasoning behind it. This gives IT room to identify the most scalable implementation path, lets product teams weigh adoption and workflow, and allows data teams to assess feasibility, all while actuaries safeguard the pricing intent.
Language is another underestimated friction point. An actuary’s rating factors and relativities may translate into an IT team’s configuration parameters and data schemas, but if definitions are not aligned early, teams can believe they agree while working from different assumptions. Akur8 frames shared terminology as a form of quality control, since poorly translated actuarial intent can produce a model that is correct in theory yet behaves differently in production.
Trust, meanwhile, must be built before the handoff rather than during it. Short feedback loops and regular check-ins surface constraints early, which matters most as changes approach deployment. In many insurers, rate changes embedded in legacy policy administration systems can take months to go live, meaning an actuarially sound decision may lose its market value before launch.
Structure completes the picture. Akur8 recommends clear owners for each workstream, shared definitions, documented decisions and a consistent operating rhythm, kept lightweight rather than bureaucratic. Finally, technology should support the process: when rating logic is decoupled from monolithic core systems, actuaries retain control of pricing logic while IT maintains governance and deployment standards.
The insurers that get this right, Akur8 concludes, do more than ship models faster. They build organisations where actuarial insight moves smoothly into business action, and where the best model is the one that can be understood, governed and deployed to create measurable value.
For more, read the full story here
Copyright © 2026 FinTech Global
