The Simple View on Trusted AI for Family Offices

A research agenda for the structural shift in how family offices operate, govern, and build.

Published by Simple | 2026

For six years, Simple has studied how family offices adopt technology. During that time, the core question has steadily evolved. It began as a question about software: which platforms do offices use, and how well do they work? It has evolved into one of data: do we trust our information enough to act on it? As AI systems move from assistive tools to agents capable of acting on behalf of the office, the question becomes organisational. How does the office itself need to change to successfully capture the power of this technology?

This shift is structural. Agentic AI – systems that can observe, plan, and execute tasks with limited human oversight – alter the calculus of staffing, infrastructure, governance, privacy, legal exposure, and the way an office interfaces with every external provider. This shift creates pressure across every function of the office simultaneously. A principal in Zurich asks whether their data is safe in a US-hosted AI model. A family office in Singapore discovers that three staff members are already using AI tools through personal accounts. An operations lead in London realises that their fund administrator cannot integrate with the automation the office is building. These are all different angles of the same transition.