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Status quo: Actuarial Workforce and Work Environments in 2026

Five years after actupool’s very first Career Newsletter framed actuarial working life through COVID-19, lockdowns and remote working, the question is no longer whether work has changed, but what kind of actuarial workplace is now taking shape.
Written on 03/19/26
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When actupool launched its first Career Newsletter in March 2021, the focus was explicitly on “COVID-19 – Impact on the work of actuaries” and on the immediate realities of remote working. In 2026, the picture is broader. Actuarial work is still flexible, but flexibility now sits alongside AI adoption, tighter data expectations and a stronger emphasis on resilience, collaboration and redesigning roles rather than merely relocating them.

The labour-market backdrop is moving fast. The World Economic Forum says 170 million jobs are expected to be created and 92 million displaced globally by 2030, while 39% of existing skill sets are expected to be transformed or outdated. LinkedIn’s 2025 Work Change Report points in the same direction: by 2030, 70% of the skills used in most jobs will change, and professionals entering the workforce today are on track to hold twice as many jobs over their careers as entrants did 15 years ago. For actuaries, that means a less linear career path and more movement between classic valuation work, risk, data, capital, pricing and technology-enabled roles.

At the same time, actuarial employers are increasingly embracing flexibility. In Selby Jennings’ 2025 Insurance & Actuarial Talent Report, 89% of respondents said they had the option to work remotely, 77% had flexible working hours, and 68% said they would turn down a job offer  requiring full-time office attendance. Yet hybrid work is becoming more managed. Cisco’s 2025 Global Hybrid Work Study found that hybrid workers now account for 47% of respondents, down from 63% in 2022, and that employees in finance and insurance are among the groups most affected by return-to-office pressure, with productivity cited by 67% of employers in the sector as a key reason.

The decisive shift in 2026 is AI. Deloitte argues that insurers now need a workforce that can “thrive with AI,” not just experiment with it. EY’s 2025 Global Insurance Outlook likewise calls for transforming workforces and cultures for the age of AI. KPMG’s 2025 Insurance CEO Outlook quantifies the pressure: 77% of insurance CEOs cite AI workforce readiness and upskilling as a top constraint on growth, 75% cite competition for AI talent, 83% say AI is already changing how they train and develop employees, and 79% say it is changing the skills required for entry-level roles. Mercer’s 2026 Global Talent Trends adds that this is not a niche issue: the study draws on nearly 12,000 respondents across 16 regions and shows that 98% of organisations are planning some form of organisational change, while 91% see AI transforming their workforce.
So what does this mean for actuaries? The actuarial workplace of 2026 is neither a return to the office-centric model of the past nor a simple continuation of pandemic-era remote work. It is a more deliberately designed environment: hybrid, data-rich, AI-augmented and more interdisciplinary. Five years after that first actupool newsletter asked how actuaries could “survive” lockdown and remote working, the more relevant question is how actuarial teams can now convert flexibility, technology and trust into a sustainable model of high-value work.

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