Quarter-Finals Spotlight: Healthcare Meets AI innovation

What if a simple quiz could transform how patients recover from surgery? Or if actuarial thinking could solve one of AI's biggest challenges? These are the questions two Australian quarter-finalists in this week's Young Actuaries World Cup want answered.

Joy Liu's breakthrough idea, Recovery Ready, is a customised quiz that helps surgery patients understand their recovery process, backed by actuarial analysis to measure what works and reduce hospital readmissions. Meanwhile, Ean Chan tackled AI misalignment by showing how actuaries' existing skills make them uniquely equipped for operational AI governance.

As we head into the quarter finals this Thursday 20 November, we're spotlighting the creative minds using actuarial thinking to solve real-world problems — from identifying critical weaknesses in discharge planning to creating practical frameworks for safer AI implementation. 

Joy Liu

Q: Walk us through your World Cup entry. What problem did you set out to solve and what's your solution? 

I’m curious about how actuaries can help shape a healthier future. Through research, I noticed a real gap in how patients are supported after surgery, especially in discharge planning and post-recovery education. 

Patients often go home unsure how to move, what to eat or when to seek help. Realising this lack of understanding of the recovery process and that discharge notes are often just a stack of papers, I wondered, ‘Is there a better way to learn about post-surgery recovery?’ 

This led to the idea of Recovery Ready, a customised multiple-choice quiz that uses data-driven insights to identify the best questions to help patients have a good understanding of the recovery process. For example, patients recovering from abdominal surgery could learn that early walking helps prevent adhesions, while cardiac surgery patients could receive guidance on gentle breathing and movement to rebuild strength. 

These small behavioural changes can make a big difference to long-term recovery outcomes and can ultimately reduce hospital readmissions. Actuaries can play a key role by measuring which interventions work best and embedding these incentives within existing insurance systems. Recovery Ready helps create a scalable model for better, smarter patient recovery. 

Q: What was the "a-ha moment" or breakthrough in developing your entry? 

The turning point came when I spoke to someone who had recently gone through heart bypass surgery. They told me they wished they had Recovery Ready available to have a better recovery.  That made me realise that Recovery Ready is something practical, not just theoretical. I also consulted doctors for their advice and professional experience. Their feedback was very positive and encouraging. 
 

Q: Where do you see the biggest opportunities for young actuaries to make an impact in the coming years? 

We are entering an exciting era: new technologies, AI breakthroughs and rapid innovation are emerging almost every day. As a young actuary, I’m grateful to be growing up in this moment of change. It’s a chance to grow alongside new sciences and to work with other young actuaries to help shape a better future. 

Actuaries can co-design the future by working with experts in health, technology and behavioural science to build data-driven solutions that address real-world problems in a systematic and sustainable way. Our skill set is uniquely suited for this moment. We understand data, commercial realities, systems, incentives and human behaviour, allowing us to design solutions that are both effective and practical.

View Joy's submission:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J2l8oM0amw  

Ean Chan

Q: Walk us through your World Cup entry. What problem did you set out to solve and what's your solution? 

There seems to be an AI use-case scandal in the news every week. It all stems from a continual misuse of the technology, sometimes in obvious ways but other times in subtle ways… where you don't see where it's going to go wrong until you're already feeling the consequences. You're making the mistakes now, and only later do you realise the impact.

I'm really into sci-fi, and where it intersects with AI and new technologies, there are incredibly engaging stories out there… usually big-picture, futuristic scenarios about superintelligence. These capture the collective imagination powerfully, and I wanted to use that energy to direct people's attention toward fixing what's actually broken right now. Not everyone is researching at frontier AI labs, or deploying the next big LLM from their basement... But everyone is interacting with AI systems that are being implemented poorly today.

My solution was giving people a practical framework to think about how to do AI right. I used the classic ‘paperclip maximiser’ thought experiment as an engaging and memorable hook, then showed how the same alignment principles apply to current business AI. My hope is to give people a sense of the problem and be aware of the framework that can solve it.

Q: What was the "a-ha moment" or breakthrough in developing your entry? 

I was doing a lot of research on existing AI governance frameworks, compiling commonalities and brainstorming the elements that could best give actuaries a way to think about the problems facing AI right now. The breakthrough came when I realised actuaries are already well-equipped for what AI teams need most: Operational AI alignment.

AI alignment tends to be discussed in respect to large-scale existential risks, but at the immediate operational level, alignment focuses on ensuring that development and use of the tools aligns with the goals of the (many) business stakeholders. This felt like something actuaries should be really good at because of our existing training and skills. As I developed the framework and did research, I understood why I thought that: it's what we already do.

We deal with model risk constantly. You can build models set up with the perfect features and algorithms, but as time passes and data changes, the model needs updating and continuous monitoring. Building useful models is inherently different from building anything else. It's less like drawing up a specific blueprint to build a bridge where you know every bolt or girder, and more like growing something in a Petri dish: you set the foundation, ensure the right environment, apply interventions at the right times, adjust conditions appropriately, and hope it grows in the intended direction. All of this requires a skillset that we’ve been honing as actuaries… and the implementation of AI systems needs exactly this.

That's when it clicked: the framework I was developing for Operational AI alignment is the Actuarial Control Cycle.

Q: Where do you see the biggest opportunities for young actuaries to make an impact in the coming years? 

It's a really exciting (but daunting) time to be someone new coming into a workplace that's being shaped more and more by AI every moment. We can debate how quickly it’ll happen, but I think everyone agrees that AI is/will be radically changing the way we work... and that might be a point of advantage for young people right now. 

Everyone is figuring out how to use AI in an effective and safe way at the same time. Senior professionals may have years of experience in specific domains, but in some ways, we're all equally new to working with AI as a tool. This fact alone levels the playing field in a way we haven't seen since the Internet fundamentally changed how we access, process and use information. 

The technical barriers that used to gate-keep certain work are dissolving fast. And while that's happening, businesses are discovering they desperately need people who can ensure AI systems work safely and effectively over time. 

That's where I see the opportunity for young people and actuaries in particular. We are used to embracing new technologies and at the same time can bring the systematic thinking about risk, validation and monitoring that’s needed. That's an incredibly exciting position to build a career from.

View Ean's submission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCW6jRSaNo8

Don't miss the quarter finals! 

Register now to watch Joy Liu alongside fellow Australian finalists Ean Chan and Lachlan Clark as they present their solutions live this Thursday, 20 November at 8:00pm Sydney time: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ooXKHR04QMOV12foMoH4aA#/registration