Family Offices Aim To Grow Sleeker, More Efficient With AI – Study

Editorial Staff

17 October 2025

North American family offices are increasingly using AI to streamline operations, according to a new report.

Family offices most frequently cited manual processes and overreliance on spreadsheets as operational risks. Their most sought-after technologies are automated investment reporting systems and wealth aggregation platforms. This year, 69 per cent of family offices have adopted automated investment reporting systems, up from 46 per cent last year.

The findings came from the North America Family Office report, issued by Royal Bank of Canada and Campden Wealth. The report is based on a statistical analysis of 317 survey responses from single family offices and private multi-family offices worldwide, with 141 from North America, the vast majority from the US. The survey was conducted between April and August 2025

The results fit with the kind of commentary that came out in last week’s Family Office FinTech Summit 2025, hosted by Family Wealth Report. As regularly noted, the wealth management sector, including family offices, continues to explore and implement AI use cases, all the while mindful of how fast change is taking place.

“Generative AI offers family offices the opportunity to streamline routine processes and enhance staff capacity for higher-value work. Usage of technology will probably continue to expand, provided that various risks and increased costs are mitigated and managed appropriately,” Manju Jessa, head of the family office and strategic clients are for RBC’s Enterprise Strategic Client Group, said in the report.

In 2024, 11 per cent of family offices had implemented generative AI, and 30 per cent indicated a desire to adopt it. This year, 29 per cent use generative AI to aid investment reporting and 30 per cent use it for research .

However, when it comes to investment resources, the overwhelming majority of family offices said having access to experienced investment professionals is the most critical factor for investment success, whether in-house, external wealth managers or independent members of their investment committee.

Not so cheerful
Elsewhere, optimism on investments has declined from where it was a year ago.

The survey found expected returns for 2025 average 5 per cent, falling from 11 per cent last year. And this year 15 per cent of those surveyed expect markets to fall, from only 1 per cent predicting such an outcome in 2024.

For all the concerns, family offices appear to remain confident about private market investments such as in venture capital, private credit and equity.

These alternative investments remain a core focus of North American family office portfolios, with 88 per cent having exposure to the private markets. These investments account for 29 per cent of the average family office portfolio in 2025, down slightly from 30 per cent a year ago. Private equity funds are the largest component of private market portfolios, but direct private equity is the most popular asset class for new investment.

IMF gets the jitters
Within parts of the private markets space, namely the private credit area, international policymakers have sounded alarms. This week at the IMF’s annual meeting, Kristalina Georgieva, head of the International Monetary Fund, reportedly said that the potential risk from private credit “keeps me awake every so often at night...We know that the non-banking financial institutions do not enjoy the same level of regulatory oversight as banks do.” Concerns on the $3 trillion sector have been sparked by the collapse of US subprime auto lender Tricolor, and auto parts supplier First Brands. In April 2024 the IMF said the sector poses risks but they are not systemic.

Sometimes the sector is dubbed “shadow banking” – although there is nothing particularly obscure about it.