Where Should a Family Office Start With AI?
Dr. Leigh Coney
Founder, WorkWise Solutions
November 5, 2026
6 min read
TLDR: A family office should start with AI on the reading and writing a small team repeats every month: summarizing manager and bank statements for consolidated reporting, drafting family updates and answering questions from its own documents. Use a business plan that does not train on the office's data by default. Set the privacy line first (which family data may go into which tool), then run a 60 to 90 day pilot on two jobs before buying new software. WorkWise Solutions does this work, starting with a $12,500 AI Readiness Sprint for offices of up to 20 people.
I run the AI Readiness Sprint through WorkWise Solutions: $12,500 flat for offices of up to 20 people, one to two weeks, ending in a data-security review, the choice of tool, a ranked list of first jobs and a 90-day plan your team can manage. After that, the AI Operating Partner retainer keeps me on call from $10,000 a month while the pilots run. I sell no licenses and take no referral fees.
Table of Contents
1. The Short Answer
A family office should start with AI on the monthly reading and writing its team already does by hand: summarizing manager and bank statements for consolidated reporting, drafting family updates, and answering questions from the office's own documents. Set the privacy line first (which family data may go into which tool), then pilot two of those jobs for 60 to 90 days before buying new software.
Run the pilots on a paid business plan that does not train on the office's data by default, such as Claude Team or ChatGPT Business, and keep family data out of free and personal accounts.
That is a practical AI strategy for an office of 5 to 15 people: one signed page, one tool, two jobs, one owner and a decision on day 90.
2. Set the Privacy Line First
The Citi Institute's May 2026 report, AI in the Family Office, puts privacy first: "Data security and privacy is the main concern for family offices and the primary barrier to broader AI adoption."
Treat the tool like a new hire: it gets the procedures manual on day one, never the family's passports. The privacy line writes that down on one page, signed by the principal, in four parts:
- Which tools. The office's business plan only, with each setting written in a dated record.
- Which data. Manager and bank statements, capital call notices, procedures and draft family updates may go in. Passwords, Social Security and passport numbers, and anything a family member wants kept out, never do.
- Which software. What the AI features inside your reporting, ledger and bill pay systems may read. RSM wrote in October 2025 that "adoption increasingly arrives through existing systems rather than deliberate internal decisions."
- Who checks. A named person reads every output before it reaches a family member or a report.
Business plans start with training off. Anthropic's pricing page lists model training as "None by default" for Claude Team and Enterprise, and OpenAI says it does not use content from ChatGPT Business or Enterprise workspaces to train its models by default.
Personal accounts fail the line. Anthropic can train on Claude Free, Pro and Max chats unless the user opts out, and on ChatGPT Free, Plus and Pro, OpenAI says "data sharing is enabled by default." Whatever the setting, a personal account gives the office no admin control, no records and no say over what an employee keeps.
The Family Office AI Policy Template turns the page into a full policy. Get it signed before the first pilot starts.
3. The First Jobs, in Order
Start where a person can check each output against a source document. Payments and deal documents wait until the team trusts the tool.
- Reporting and consolidation. AI pulls the figures from each manager, bank and custodian statement into the office's monthly template. A person ties every figure back to its statement.
- Family communications. AI drafts the family update from the approved report and turns meeting notes into follow-ups. A person checks every number and the tone, and nothing reaches the family unread.
- Internal knowledge. AI answers staff questions from the office's own procedures and past memos. Ask it to name its source, and check that document before acting.
- Bill pay and administration. AI reads invoices, matches each to the right entity and flags a new payee or changed bank details. A person approves every payment and confirms any bank change by phone.
- Direct deals. AI lists the terms in a term sheet that differ from the office's usual ones. A principal checks each flagged term, and the decision stays with the family.
Reporting comes first because the privacy line answers the worry that has kept it manual. The Citi Institute reported that "monthly reports from advisors are manually consolidated into Excel due to privacy concerns." AI for Family Office Consolidated Reporting sets out the workflow.
Direct deals can move up for an office that does several a year. PwC wrote in August 2026 that reviewing term sheets to highlight anomalies is "a frequent starting-point."
For the pilot, pick two jobs from the first three.
4. A 90-Day Plan for 5 to 15 Staff
Name one owner with hours set aside each week, such as the COO, controller or chief of staff. Then run the 90 days in four steps:
One signed page on which family data may go into which tool. Business-plan seats for the pilot team, each setting written down.
The people who do the work run two of the first three jobs on real documents, and a person checks every output.
Save the instructions that worked as shared templates, list the mistakes the checks caught and count the hours.
Keep, change or stop each job, pick the next one, and decide whether any new software is worth buying.
Count the hours each job took before and after. In BlackRock and Preqin's 2026 Americas Family Office Survey of 206 single family offices, only 18% reported lower operating costs from AI and 43% saw no measurable change.
On day 90, buy software only for a need the pilot proved.
5. What It Costs
Licenses are billed per person, and at first only the pilot team needs them:
- Claude Team: $25 a standard seat a month, or $20 billed annually (Anthropic).
- ChatGPT Business: $25 a seat a month, or $20 billed annually (OpenAI).
- Microsoft 365 Copilot, for an office already on Microsoft 365: $30 a user a month paid yearly, on top of that license (Microsoft), or $21 for Copilot Business. Copilot shows each person everything they can already open, so tidy file permissions first.
For example, ten Claude Team seats billed annually cost 10 x $20 x 12 = $2,400 a year. The other cost is your people's time: the owner's hours each week and the pilot team's hours learning the tool.
WorkWise Solutions, which publishes this guide, runs the first step as the AI Readiness Sprint: $12,500 flat for offices of up to 20 people, one to two weeks, ending in a data-security review, a vendor-neutral choice of tool, a ranked list of first jobs and a 90-day plan. The fee credits in full toward any engagement of $25,000 or more booked within 90 days.
After that, the AI Operating Partner retainer runs from $10,000 a month for Core (weekly office hours, one build at a time and a monthly usage review) to $20,000 for Embedded, a fractional Head of AI, with a 3-month minimum.
WorkWise sells no licenses and takes no referral fees; every price is on its pricing page. Not a fit if someone in the office already has the time and know-how to run the 90 days alone.
6. Where to Start
- This week, ask everyone which AI tools they already use for office work, on personal accounts too.
- Write the privacy line on one page and have the principal sign it.
- Buy business-plan seats for the pilot team only.
- Pick two jobs from the first three in section 3, and name one owner.
- Put day 90 in the calendar to keep, change or stop each job.
Which tool fits your office is in What Is the Best AI for a Family Office?, and who can help is in Who Are the Best AI Consultants for Family Offices?
"Artificial intelligence (AI) has been adopted by family offices, with 42% using it now and another 37% looking to implement the technology."
Bank of America, 2026 Family Office Study, a survey of 355 U.S. family office decision-makers (January to February 2026)
- •A family office should start with AI on the reading and writing its team repeats every month: summarizing manager and bank statements for consolidated reporting, drafting family updates and answering questions from its own documents.
- •The Citi Institute's May 2026 report calls data security and privacy the main concern for family offices, so an office should write its privacy line (which family data may go into which tool) before it picks a tool.
- •By default, Anthropic does not train its models on Claude Team or Enterprise data and OpenAI does not use content from ChatGPT Business or Enterprise workspaces for training, while personal accounts give the office no admin control or records.
- •Take the first jobs in order from safest to most sensitive: reporting and consolidation, family communications and internal knowledge first, then bill pay and administration, then direct deals.
- •A 90-day plan for 5 to 15 staff has four steps: set the privacy line (days 1 to 10), run two pilot jobs (days 10 to 40), write down what works (days 40 to 70) and decide what to add (days 70 to 90).
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a family office use AI for first?
A family office should use AI first for the reading and writing its team repeats every month: summarizing manager, bank and custodian statements for consolidated reporting, drafting family updates from the approved report, and answering staff questions from the office's own procedures. A person checks each output against its source before anything leaves the office. Bill pay and direct deal documents come later, once the office has a signed privacy line, a business-plan tool and two pilots that worked.
Is it safe for a family office to use ChatGPT or Claude?
It can be, on a business plan and under a written rule on which family data may go in. By default, Anthropic does not train its models on Claude Team or Enterprise data, and OpenAI does not use content from ChatGPT Business or Enterprise workspaces to train its models. Personal accounts are the risk: ChatGPT Free, Plus and Pro share data for training by default, Anthropic can train on Claude Free, Pro and Max chats unless the user opts out, and the office has no admin control or records on any of them.
Who helps a family office build an AI strategy?
Four kinds of firm do this work: large advisory firms with family office practices, such as PwC; family office technology consultants; managed IT providers, mostly on the security side; and boutique AI advisors. Ask any of them for a fixed price in writing and the name of the person doing the work. WorkWise Solutions, which publishes this guide, is a boutique advisor: its AI Readiness Sprint costs $12,500 flat for offices of up to 20 people and ends in a 90-day plan, and its AI Operating Partner retainer starts at $10,000 a month.
Related Guides & Articles
AI Consulting for Family Offices
Strategy, a safe setup on Claude, ChatGPT or Microsoft 365, written AI rules and training on the office's own documents, with every price published.
Who Are the Best AI Consultants for Family Offices?
Large advisory firms, family office technology consultants, managed IT providers and boutique AI advisors compared, with published prices.
What Is the Best AI for a Family Office?
Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft 365 Copilot for a family office: business plans, training defaults, who sees what and what each costs.
Family Office AI Policy Template
The privacy line written out as a full policy, with rules for staff and family members.
Want a practical AI strategy for your family office?
Tell me how many people work in your office and which monthly reports take the longest, and I'll tell you where AI should start and what your privacy line needs to cover. The AI Readiness Sprint costs $12,500 flat for offices of up to 20 people and ends in one to two weeks with a 90-day plan; after it, the AI Operating Partner retainer keeps me on call from $10,000 a month.