GREENWICH — A Citi Institute report based on global interviews with family office principals and chief investment officers reveals accelerating adoption of artificial intelligence among billionaires’ private wealth offices, driven largely by younger family members despite persistent data privacy concerns from founding generations. According to the report, 22% of family offices now use AI for operational tasks or investment analysis, up from 13% a year ago.
The number of family offices using AI specifically for investment performance reporting has more than doubled over the past 12 months. A junior analyst in one family office has spent six months running investment memos through an AI summarization tool, compressing hours of work into minutes. This hands-on experimentation by younger staff is helping to demonstrate AI’s practical value within these institutions.
“Junior staff and younger family members are the biggest advocates for AI. They experiment, demonstrate value and bring older generations along,” the Citi report stated. The report describes a clear generational divide: founding-generation principals prioritize data security, while younger, AI-native family members push for broader implementation. In interviews, family office principals told Citi Institute researchers, “Data privacy is non-negotiable. AI solutions that cannot guarantee data security are unlikely to be adopted.”
Despite growing interest, 57% of single-family offices cite a lack of internal expertise as the biggest barrier to AI adoption. The report also noted, “A small number of family offices might inadvertently have access to AI through ‘the back door’ via SaaS providers or daily devices they already use,” suggesting adoption may be more widespread than formal surveys indicate.
The Citi report warns, “If not embraced, there’s a risk of losing talent to organizations that fully endorse the technology.” The findings come as an estimated $83 trillion in private wealth is projected to change hands over the next two to three decades, potentially accelerating the role of technology in wealth management decisions.