Milliman builds a scalable actuarial platform on Azure with 20% workload growth

Insurance re-integrated

The global insurance industry is defined by economic uncertainty, evolving risks, constant regulatory change, and persistent cybersecurity threats. To stay ahead, insurers must lean into innovation and future-proof their foundations. Milliman recognized this need years ahead of the curve and continues to advance its platform as the industry’s needs shift.

“We’re rapidly moving away from the idea of a monolithic, one-stop shop for all actuarial software,” explains Brian Fomby, Principal and Director of Life Technology Solutions at Milliman. “We’re embracing a more open architecture—a flexible, interoperable ecosystem that integrates seamlessly with other tools and systems.”

“Integrate is the first actuarial platform to connect cloud-based data management directly with actuarial models,” says Fomby. “It’s a clear example that we made the right strategic bet by shifting to the cloud. It strengthened our position in the market and expanded what we could deliver to our customers.”

Elastic power at lower cost

Top insurers worldwide rely on Integrate to deliver financial reporting with zero margin for error.

“Integrate is effectively running millions of calculations on the business insurers hold. To understand the impact on an insurer’s balance sheet, you need extremely accurate calculations, and to do that, you need scale, power, security, and stability,” explains Amritpal Khangura, Principal & Consulting Actuary and Co-Lead of UK Life Technology Solutions at Milliman.

Azure meets the magnitude of these workloads. Khangura confirms, “Azure gives us virtually boundless compute capacity, deep reliability and resiliency, and the level of audit-grade reproducibility our industry requires.”

These gains are tangible. For one major UK client, Milliman saw the volume of actuarial runs increase by 20% year over year with no issues securing compute capacity, while overall compute costs fell by 20% during the same period.

“We’re allowing our customers to do more, and their costs are coming down,” underscores Khangura. “Some of that is due to model efficiency, but a lot of it comes from the hardware advancements Azure continuously rolls out. Clients gain access to increasingly powerful compute without paying beyond their normal usage. We see the impact clearly in the performance metrics we track. It’s a huge win.”

Granting insurers greater control and visibility

Integrate represents a meaningful shift in actuarial technology, empowering insurers with the stability and governance standards demanded in today’s environment.

Patricia Renzi, CEO of the Life Technology Solutions Division at Milliman, explains, “We built a solution that enables insurers to innovate boldly while demonstrating rigorous regulatory discipline.”

With Integrate, insurers gain the tools to focus on their core mission. “The improvements that make me most proud are those that let insurers focus on what they do best: protecting policyholders and being good stewards of their retirement savings,” adds Renzi.

Milliman also leverages Azure’s built-in telemetry and near real-time dashboards to provide insurers with transparent visibility into compute usage and cost. This unified view enables them to monitor, optimize, and govern workloads intuitively in one place.

“We empower customers to steer the ship themselves,” emphasizes Khangura. “With Azure real-time dashboards, they see exactly what they’re spending and can actively manage their investment.”

Partnership as a force multiplier

Built on more than 15 years of deep collaboration, Integrate reflects ongoing co-innovation between Milliman and Microsoft engineers working side by side to advance the platform’s resilience.

“We found a great partner," enthuses Renzi. “Our engineers feel empowered working directly with Microsoft engineers, understanding new products and shaping capabilities that strengthen our offering.”

Security is another cornerstone of this partnership—essential for Milliman’s customers operating in a highly regulated environment.

“Microsoft understands the need for governance, trust, and security and ensures the right controls are in place to protect insurers and their policyholders,” adds Renzi.

This trusted alliance now propels the platform into its next evolution. “The modernization we’re driving today lays the groundwork to expand and open up our system for advanced AI capabilities. And expanding our API framework is a critical first step as we think about agentic capabilities and intelligent workflows,” reflects Fomby.

The next frontier: Agentic AI

Azure forms the backbone of Milliman’s AI-driven future. Built on a strong cloud-native foundation, Milliman envisions agentic AI capabilities that include automated model governance and model-building, reduced manual model maintenance, and AI-powered “virtual actuarial employees” that scan markets, suggest new product opportunities, and build models to test viability.

“AI can enable protections people need in a way that’s affordable and accessible,” says Renzi. “This will help millions live their lives with confidence in their future.”

The team is moving full throttle. Khangura summarizes it best, “We leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of resilient, forward-thinking solutions. With Microsoft, we have the confidence, the infrastructure, and the shared commitment to deliver what’s next.”