Family offices love investing in AI – but are they using it?

It’s one of the strangest paradoxes in the investment world right now: family offices are laser-focused on AI as an investment theme but hesitant to use it in their own operations.

AI has become the darling of five-year outlooks, topping trend lists and soaking up attention in management meetings. Yet when it comes to internal adoption, most family offices are still standing at the starting line trying to figure out which way to run.

In this article, I want to unpack this curious disconnect and what it means for family offices and vendors alike.

All in on AI

In BNY’s 2025 global single family office survey, 83% of family offices named AI as one of their top five investment themes for the next five years. Even as concerns rise around AI valuations, regulatory uncertainty, and geopolitical competition, the long-term bet is clear: AI will shape the decade ahead.

The UBS 2025 global family office report echoes this enthusiasm, showing that 27% of family offices already have a defined investment strategy around AI, while 64% are eager to explore further. The confidence is high, particularly in sectors like financial services, biotech, and power management.

BlackRock’s 2025 data adds more texture: 45% of family offices are investing in AI companies, and 51% are backing opportunities expected to benefit from AI’s rise.

In short: everyone wants exposure to AI in their portfolios.

But what do the numbers say when it comes to internal adoption?

Most family offices aren’t using AI just yet

Despite the hype, family offices aren’t sprinting toward AI adoption internally.

In Deloitte’s 2024 survey, only 12% of family offices reported using AI in their operations. By 2025, BlackRock reports that figure has increased to 33% – a decent jump, but still far from mass adoption.

And what are they doing with it?

According to BlackRock, 34% use AI to improve investment analytics, such as automating data consolidation or document interrogation. Some (17%) apply it in due diligence and reporting. Most deployments are still back-office focused.

Family offices want to use AI – they just don’t know how

The gap between AI investment and AI implementation isn’t a matter of resistance. Most family offices want to use AI – they just don’t know where to start.

I really want to use AI, but I don’t know how to apply it [...]. It’s still too immature. I hope I can get some tools to save a bit of time and make my job easier. But we haven’t seen anything we can trust to address our big bottlenecks around information gathering and processing.

I think most people do not understand or know how to use artificial intelligence, and that most who say they are using it really are not, because it is so complicated. They are probably just using ChatGPT.

And let’s be fair: the operational landscape of a family office isn’t exactly plug-and-play. Offices are lean (often fewer than 20 employees), privacy-focused, and highly customized to the values of the family. The idea of throwing a black-box AI system into the middle of all that is enough to make most principals reach for the nearest bottle of Burgundy.

The barriers are real. BlackRock highlights the top concerns: data privacy worries, lack of AI expertise, AI hallucinations, and lack of integrations with legacy systems.

But is momentum building?

According to UBS’s 2025 report, 69% of family offices expect to use AI for financial reporting and data visualization in the next five years. Another 64% anticipate using it for summarizing documents and statements, and 62% for portfolio analysis.

There’s an emerging blueprint here: start small, automate the painful stuff, and build trust over time. The direction is becoming clearer. The question is whether family offices will act before the pace of adoption outpaces them.

Because it is.

AI adoption is already outpacing internet adoption by two years, and PC adoption by five.

The opportunity for AI vendors: speak human, not hype

Here’s where vendors often miss the mark. They sell AI like it’s some futuristic spaceship you get to pilot. But most family offices aren’t looking to orbit Jupiter. They’re just trying to get Excel out of their Mondays.

One family office told BlackRock: “We replaced three days’ Excel slog per month with a 30-second AI script.” And that’s exactly the kind of use case that needs more airtime.

Family offices don’t need another platform promising “cognitive synergy and autonomous alpha.” They need someone to walk in, point to a pain point (like manager letters, performance reports, or tracking unfunded commitments across entities), and say, “Here’s how AI can take this from six hours to six seconds.”

That’s it. That’s the pitch.

In many ways, AI is going through the same awkward teenage years we saw with cloud computing or data analytics. Early adopters are experimenting. Most others are watching. Everyone's curious. But few are confident enough to commit.

We wrote a full guide on how to vet family office software vendors in the AI era – what to ask, what to avoid, and how to spot real functionality versus vaporware. If you’re shopping around, it’s worth a read.

Closing thoughts: family offices don’t need to run, but they should start walking

So where does that leave us?

Right now, family offices are at the AI starting line. They’re stretching. They’ve bought the fancy shoes. But they’re still unsure which direction to run.

The good news is they don’t need to sprint. But they do need to take a step.

The family offices that start small – cleaning up reporting, automating admin, tightening workflows – will find that AI isn’t an alien technology. It’s just a smarter way to do familiar things.

And vendors? The ones who speak in real-life outcomes – not buzzwords – will win this race.

How we think about AI at Aleta

We’re building Aleta for the AI era. Not with hype, but with real capability under the hood and deliberate choices about where, when, and how we integrate AI into workflows.

We believe in building a next-gen wealth management platform. One that works seamlessly out of the box, with a native app, intuitive UI, and a clean user experience that just makes sense.

We love talking about this space – the future of AI, data, and wealth tech.

So, whether you're comparing platforms or just exploring what's next, reach out. Even if we're not your end destination, we’ll help you ask better questions along the way.