AI has made significant strides, and family offices are now tapping into its potential to enhance operational efficiency. Murali Nadarajah, CIO at Eton Solutions with over 37 years of experience, believes this is just the start. After nearly four decades in the field, he sees this generation of AI pushing family offices beyond automation, enabling them to explore capabilities previously out of human reach.
Current status of AI in family offices
Today, some family offices are using AI to automate tasks. Data processing, reporting, and similar functions are automated to save both time and money. The modus operandi is efficiency, cost reduction, and minimising errors. At the genesis of generative AI, humans are at the helm, telling the tool what to do. However, according to Murali, the true potential of AI in family offices lies beyond simple automation.
“Imagine what you could achieve if you suddenly had a thousand AI agents working tirelessly for you. Tasks that were once impossible due to resource constraints now become everyday capabilities. Generative AI transforms the family office by providing a virtual workforce that scales your potential and opens up entirely new opportunities.”— Murali Nadarajah, CIO at Eton Solutions,
At Eton Solutions, Murali drives the integration of AI into the family office platform, AtlasFive®, through EtonGPT™, focusing on transforming efficiency. With family offices relying heavily on knowledge-based processes, automating complex cognitive tasks is a game-changer. For example, tasks like market research or creating a narrative for quarterly reports —previously taking hours—can now be completed in minutes.
EtonGPT™ for family offices
By combining advanced AI with the existing capabilities of the AtlasFive® ERP platform, EtonGPT™ enhances back-office efficiency while also tackling cognitive functions. Below are five current features of the platform:
Extraction: EtonGPT™ automatically ingests, extracts, and classifies data from over 250 types of documents, including invoices, bank statements, tax forms, capital call requests and contracts. Using the natural language interface, users can retrieve information and access real-time market data, such as forex rates and securities.
Summarisation: It automatically indexes, tags, and uploads documents securely into the AtlasFive® account. Using Elastic Search, these documents can be easily retrieved and detailed summaries of each document can be created upon request.
Generation: The platform allows family offices to produce documents such as comprehensive market research using real-time web data. It can also help generate first drafts of Estate Plans, Wills, and Trust Agreements from scratch or by adapting existing templates or documents to meet specific needs.
Inferencing: EtonGPT™ seamlessly integrates with AtlasFive investment and accounting functions, allowing family offices to instantly request private investment data using natural language. It also integrates with Power BI AutoML tools, enabling the exploration and breakdown of reporting dashboards without having to navigate multiple menus.
Transformation: EtonGPT™ multimodal capabilities allow family offices to convert PDF reports into various languages for individual wealth owners. The platform can also transform written documents into visual charts and allows for voice commands via speech-to-text.
“The range of possibilities is vast, but the real impact is in transforming the entire operating model. It’s not about automating yesterday’s processes—it’s about building for a completely new world.” -Murali Nadarajah, CIO at Eton Solutions.
According to Murali, family offices’ response to EtonGPT™ has been like peeling away layers of an onion. Initially, they focus on the standard five features. But as they become more comfortable, they start to push the boundaries and experiment with new possibilities. This natural progression leads to what he calls ‘off-label’ applications—where unexpected use cases emerge. It’s similar to how Ozempic, originally a diabetes drug, is now primarily recognised for its impact on weight loss. Likewise, as family offices deepen their understanding of generative AI, they unlock powerful new applications they hadn’t considered before.
The future of AI in family offices
Looking ahead, Murali compares the current status of AI in family offices to the early days of the internet. Much like how the internet disrupted brick-and-mortar companies and created e-commerce giants, AI will change the fundamentals of how family offices operate. Considering the concept of radical abundance and how the next generation is more open to technology, he envisions that, over time, family offices will increasingly rely more on AI to augment and fill in the gaps that were otherwise humanly impossible.
However, while AI is advancing rapidly, it cannot be relied upon to make ethical decisions or reach moral conclusions. Generative AI still operates like a black box. Hence, human oversight remains critical. Murali emphasises the importance of keeping humans in the loop. This is why Eton Solutions’ AI efforts are guided by eight foundational principles formulated in their Responsible AI Policy framework.
Conclusion
For Murali, a journey that began over 37 years ago is now culminating in Eton Solutions’ EtonGPT™. With advancements in deep learning, access to vast data enabled by the internet, and the immense computational power of cloud providers, processes once thought impossible are now a reality. The integration of AI in family offices goes beyond task automation—it’s redefining how family goals are achieved. EtonGPT™ is leading this transformation, empowering family offices to leverage AI and rethink the way they operate.
Eton Solutions is based in the United States, in Research Triangle Park, NC. with its international headquarters in Singapore focused on serving markets outside of the Americas. Created by family office leaders, Eton Solutions’ AtlasFive®, manages over US$936 billion on the integrated platform that holistically aggregates and manages all liquid and alternative investment assets and office’s data, reporting and workflow processes. With one source of truth, Eton Solutions leads wealth management into the future by maximising efficiency and minimising errors and risk.
