Almost Nowhere

Devyn McNicoll joins Alicia Burke as our guest host for this episode filmed at the 2026 Spring Meeting.

Recorded live at the 2026 RPM Seminar in Chicago, this episode of Almost Nowhere explores a question that sits at the center of modern actuarial practice: what does pricing sophistication actually mean?
While many North American conversations focus on modeling techniques, filing requirements, and implementation challenges, some international markets have pushed much further into demand modeling, elasticity, customer lifetime value, experimentation, and real-time deployment. To understand what that looks like in practice, Alicia Burke and Jeffrey Durham sit down with pricing actuary Piotr Lebiedz, whose experience spans some of Europe's most competitive insurance markets.
The discussion covers:
Why competition and regulation shape pricing innovation differently around the world
What U.S. actuaries can learn from pricing practices in Poland and the UK
The real strengths and limitations of GBMs versus GLMs
How demand modeling and elasticity can improve business decisions without crossing regulatory lines
Why deployment speed may matter more than model complexity
The debate around customer lifetime value and whether insurers can truly predict it
How AI and agentic workflows could reshape pricing teams in the years ahead
Along the way, Piotr challenges the idea that sophistication is simply about building more complex models. Instead, he argues that the most advanced organizations focus on people, processes, governance, and speed—using the right tools for the right problems rather than chasing complexity for its own sake.
For actuaries, pricing leaders, and insurance innovators, this conversation offers a rare look inside markets where pricing strategy has become a true competitive weapon.

Recorded live at the 2026 RPM Seminar in Chicago, this episode of Almost Nowhere cuts through the noise surrounding InsurTech, GenAI, and the future of insurance software. Alicia Burke, Max Martinelli, and guest co-host Sergey sit down with Betty Zhu to unpack one of the biggest questions facing carriers today: when should insurers build technology themselves, and when should they buy it?
Drawing from nearly a decade inside pricing technology and InsurTech vendors, Betty shares an insider’s perspective on the realities behind flashy demos, AI-driven product claims, vendor evaluations, proof-of-concepts, and the growing pressure created by rapid advances in generative AI.
The conversation explores:
Why GenAI is making “build vs. buy” harder than ever
How carriers can distinguish real expertise from polished demos
The hidden risks of in-house AI development and key-person dependency
Why distribution, domain expertise, and long-term viability matter more than hype
How actuarial workflows may evolve as AI lowers the barrier to building software
For actuaries, innovation leaders, and insurance professionals trying to navigate the next wave of AI-enabled transformation, this episode offers a grounded discussion on what creates durable value — and what may disappear as quickly as it arrived.

Recorded live at the 2025 CAS Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas, this episode of Almost Nowhere explores how Japan’s insurance industry manages some of the most concentrated catastrophe risk in the world.
Hosts Alicia Burke and Max Martinelli are joined by Suguru Fujita, Yohei Konishi, Takuro Oyama, and Kenta Ito for a conversation on earthquakes, typhoons, reinsurance structures, catastrophe modeling, public-private partnerships, and the cultural mindset behind resilience in Japan.
The discussion dives into how Japanese insurers approach pricing, regulation, AI, claims response, and long-term catastrophe management — and what U.S. actuaries and insurers can learn from a system built around collaboration, preparedness, and recovery.

Climate risk is changing faster than actuarial practice.
In this episode of Almost Nowhere, Jim Weiss challenges how actuaries think about responsibility when models, data, and assumptions start to break down. From overlooked casualty impacts to the limits of today’s frameworks, this conversation pushes beyond the usual climate narrative.
Plus, what AI means for all of it — and why the real risk might not be what you think.
Filmed at the 2026 CAS RPM Seminar in Chicago.