The increasing availability of big data and the use of predictive analytics are changing how insurers and actuaries operate. As companies face growing competitive pressures to perform, knowing how to mine and recognize the importance of data, in all forms, becomes a prime advantage.
Data science and actuarial science are both multidisciplinary in nature; they extract insights from data and require strong understanding of the underlying business processes and domain knowledge to be successful at accomplishing the task. A deeper understanding of data science can allow actuaries to leverage data science results in their work and find more applications in emerging practice areas.