As big data and artificial intelligence collide with deep social and environmental trends, the world is looking to skilled professionals, bound by a code of ethics, to safely navigate these turbulent times.

As big data and artificial intelligence collide with deep social and environmental trends, the world is looking to skilled professionals, bound by a code of ethics, to safely navigate these turbulent times. Actuaries are uniquely positioned to meet this challenge.
However, to grasp the opportunities of this rapidly transforming landscape, we will need to change as a profession. We will have to adapt and evolve, becoming more agile and nimble, and less constrained by our traditional specialisations and mindsets.
The groundwork is in place. We have taken soundings from our members and the wider profession and a key message has come across loud and clear. To enable our members to move into the new fields we desire, we need to be more explicit in our qualifications about the core actuarial skills upon which later specialisation is built. Having established Associateship as our initial destination qualification, we will embrace a new generation of qualified actuaries and become globally renowned for developing the adaptable, flexible, quantitative and business skillset that all organisations will need.
As we continue to broaden the well-developed specialist skills that our profession is founded upon through our new qualification structure, refreshed curriculum and global professional community, I believe the profession will be fit for the future - and in a prime position to support business, governments and society as they navigate 21st century challenges.
Jules Constantinou is the president of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries