Family offices still run on manual work as vendors race ahead on AI, Simple's 2026 tech report finds

Simple Family Office Software & Technology Report 2026

Francois Botha, Simple Founder and CEO in Munich, September 2026 gathering a group of family offices alongside Bits & Pretzels. Photo by Claudia Weaver

Simple's seventh annual Family Office Software & Technology Report finds vendors racing ahead on AI while family offices still rely on manual work.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, November 10, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Simple, the leading family office technology & AI advisory, today published its Family Office Software & Technology Report for 2026. The seventh edition of the annual report finds that vendors' development of increasingly autonomous AI tools is running ahead of how family offices use the technology, with data quality and limited internal capacity constraining adoption.

In Simple's research, family offices describe using AI mainly as an assistant for email, documents and research, with a person prompting each step. Vendors describe more advanced automation and autonomous agents, although much of that work is still at an early stage or in pilot.

The practical obstacles begin with the data. Offices and vendors both describe difficulties getting clean information into and between systems. Some offices still assemble reports by hand despite having portfolio management systems in place.

When selecting software, family offices continue to rely on references from peers and established relationships. Referrals remain an important way for providers to reach new clients.

Security is another consideration in the selection process, both as a concern for family offices and as a criterion for assessing software.

Once a system has been selected, limited internal capacity and skills are the biggest implementation hurdles. Vendors typically quote two to four months, with longer timelines where extensive historical data or numerous banks are involved. Some offices depend on one or two experienced users to make their systems work, creating vulnerabilities when those people are unavailable or leave the organisation.

Responsibility for ongoing operations also varies. Family offices outsource IT to external providers, while reporting appears to remain in-house.

Alongside decisions about buying software, several offices are now building their own tools, often for the first time.

"The reality is that a lot of work in family offices is still manual, even where technology is in place. There's copying, there are disconnected systems, and there are gaps everywhere: in knowledge, capacity, technology and process", said Francois Botha, Founder & CEO of Simple.

"The promise of AI is that it could fill those gaps. That's what makes this such an interesting moment for family offices", he added.

Trust in how AI handles sensitive information is another constraint. Privacy is the leading AI concern in the research, with offices asking where family data goes and who can see it. Vendors are responding with approaches that keep AI within their platforms or the client's environment, or exclude sensitive work.

The gap between AI development and adoption also reflects what family offices want from the technology. Vendors have developed chatbots that allow users to interact with their data, but offices describe limited use because these features do not appear to deliver the efficiency gains they are seeking.

The report draws on Simple's work with the family office sector over the past year, including workshops attended by around 300 people. It incorporates qualitative input from 57 family offices and insights from 44 software vendors, gathered through interviews, workshops and surveys between September 2025 and October 2026. Simple's platform, which has more than 12,000 users, provides further insight into the needs of family offices.

Alongside the report, Simple has launched its Family Office AI Advisor, a free tool for principals, C-level (CIO/CEO/COO) and family office teams in single and multi-family offices. In about ten minutes, it helps an office work out where to start with AI and provides suggested actions based on the office's needs.

The full Family Office Software & Technology Report 2026 is available for free now: https://andsimple.co/reports/family-office-software.

About Simple

Simple is the leading family office technology & AI advisory. It combines original research, advisory services and purpose-built software to help principals, family office teams and service providers with formation, governance, operations and AI adoption. With team members and partners in Copenhagen, London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Barcelona, New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City and Cape Town, Simple works with families through family office professionals and principals worldwide. Its free knowledge platform gives anyone who signs up open access to all of Simple's research, reports and guides. For more information, visit andsimple.co.

Francois Botha
And Simple ApS
hi@andsimple.co
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