Rob Mallernee is the founder and CEO of Eton Solutions.
AI is fundamentally transforming how family offices operate. By enhancing efficiency and automating repetitive tasks, it frees professionals to focus on higher-value work. While family offices have historically lagged behind in adopting new technology, younger family members are now expecting AI-enabled technology—they want information in real time and in accessible formats. Offices that embrace AI will become more efficient while delivering a higher level of service. Those who don’t risk being left behind.
Efficiency And The AI-Driven Family Office
AI won’t replace family office professionals, but it will redefine how they work. Tech-forward firms can support more clients with fewer employees, which allows them to focus on creativity, complex problem-solving and high-touch client interactions.
AI-powered platforms are already helping family offices speed up data ingestion, processing and report generation. Rather than relying on disconnected tools, modern family offices are moving toward integrated platforms where all the data lives in one place.
Instead of having employees spend hours on manual data entry, AI agents—essentially automatic bots—can handle these repetitive tasks. AI agents are evolving from performing single tasks to becoming sophisticated multifunctional tools, much like the transition from flip phones to smartphones or from paper ledgers to Excel.
Doing It Right
Implementing AI in a family office isn’t as simple as plugging ChatGPT into existing systems. It requires a comprehensive, orchestrated approach, starting with choosing the tasks that are most suitable for automation. Processes that are easy to validate should be prime candidates.
Selecting the right AI models for the right tasks is another crucial step. Different models serve different purposes, and a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. Once AI-generated insights reach end users, they need to be able to create effective prompts to extract information that is both relevant and accurate, so proper training is also key.
Data and workflows need to be AI-ready. Large language models (LLMs) are great at reading documents but struggle with structured databases. That’s why family offices must create knowledge graphs and vector databases to give AI the necessary context so it doesn’t misinterpret critical data; for example, in the family office setting the word “apple” probably refers to the company, not the fruit.
AI integration also comes with heightened responsibilities in data security and compliance, so careful planning is important to prevent the mishandling of sensitive information. No matter how advanced the system becomes, human oversight is critical to validate AI-generated outputs and avoid hallucinations.
The Future: From Tools To Services
Bringing AI into the picture will affect staffing and roles within family offices. Data handling that once involved multiple levels—from mailrooms to analysts to investment advisors—can now be largely automated. This shift will let people move into more strategic roles, reallocating thousands of hours annually in larger offices.
Looking ahead, family offices will move toward buying AI-driven outcomes and services instead of individual tools. Instead of navigating multiple systems, workers will simply tell AI what they need—a report generated, accounts reconciled or data shared with specific people at a particular time—and the system will handle the rest.
Integrating AI into a family office is far more complex than it may seem. It is far beyond a simple plug-and-play solution, and trying to implement it without expert guidance is a mistake. AI is already reshaping the industry, with changes happening in terms of months, not years. The time to act is now.
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