Growing up as part of a thriving family business, Claudie Bélisle-Desjardins was exposed to innovation at an early age. At Riobel, a luxury faucet brand founded by her father, Mario Bélisle, she took on responsibilities ranging from gluing parts together to marketing and design.
“It really made me learn about optimization because I was always in a different department,” she says. “We were always asking: ‘How we can improve that situation? How can we improve the market?’”
That was before the age of AI. Since the sale of Riobel in 2016, Bélisle-Desjardins has applied the same values to her new projects and to managing the Bélisle family office. The result: extensive development, testing and adoption of AI tools.
As president of Groupe Wilnor, a residential and commercial real estate development and investment firm in Prévost, Que., Bélisle-Desjardins and her team are driven by sustainability and innovation that has carried over to the family office.
In conversation with Canadian Family Offices, Bélisle-Desjardins discusses how she is integrating AI into all aspects of family office processes, how this drives efficiency, and why getting up to speed on this technology now is key.
Note: Responses have been edited for clarity and length.
How did you start implementing AI on the family office side? What made you decide that this would be worth integrating into your processes?
Like most people, I started by asking ChatGPT simple, low-risk questions—the kinds of things I would once have searched for on Google. From there, I began using it to draft emails. More recently, we have been testing task automation and exploring bots that could handle more substantial work. The main attraction for me is the opportunity to optimize our processes.
AI also helps address the realities of operating with a small family office team. It allows us to make the most of each person’s potential. I would rather have a small team working at full capacity than a large team operating at only a fraction of its potential. AI can help make that possible.
Claudie Bélisle-Desjardins, president of Groupe Wilnor and manager of the Bélisle family office
What does AI implementation look like for your family office?
We are experimenting with prompts and implementing an integrated management platform. The most important element is customization, because every family office has different needs.
AI offers a high degree of personalization. You can ask for information to be organized or presented in a particular way, then adjust the output until it works for you.
A family office deals with accounting, finance, taxation, performance reporting and many other functions. We are looking at how AI-enabled tools can support and strengthen those activities. The technology is flexible: we can add capabilities, identify what is not working, make changes and continue refining the system.
At the same time, you need to apply critical judgment. You have to ask whether the answer is accurate, whether the information is presented appropriately, whether the data has been processed correctly and whether the output is useful. Learning to evaluate AI in this way is important because I believe it will be part of how we work for the long term.
How have your colleagues responded to your move to implement AI?
I am fortunate to have a great deal of freedom because ours is a small family office. I can speak directly with my family about how information is used, as well as confidentiality, cybersecurity and other potential risks. Many family offices have multiple layers of approval and administration. We do not, which gives us the flexibility to move faster and explore the technology more deeply.
Why are you drawn to AI? How does it help you achieve results and efficiencies in your business?
I am primarily drawn to AI because of its potential to optimize how we work. We are using data and prompts to build tools and templates that can make our processes more efficient.
For the team, however, the immediate goal is less about producing results and more about developing the right mindset. I ask each person to spend at least two hours a week experimenting with coding or AI tools. Because everyone works in a different area, they encounter different information, challenges and confidentiality considerations, so the tools they develop will not all be the same.
After a month, we review what everyone has tested, what worked and what results they achieved. That allows team members to learn from one another. Building these skills creates additional value because people begin to think differently: a machine or software may help complete a task, but the first result is not necessarily the final answer. It can always be assessed and improved.
I compare it to getting into a vehicle while it is travelling at 10 kilometres an hour rather than waiting until it reaches 100. I want the team to begin learning now, before the technology advances so quickly that it becomes difficult to catch up.
What do you think your AI use will look like 10 years from now?
AI will simply become another tool embedded in our day-to-day processes. We will also become more accepting of the signs that something was built with AI, because people will recognize that it saves time. Personalization will remain important, but business is ultimately driven by efficiency and optimization. Progress will continue, whether we resist it or not.
What are the advantages for family offices if they utilize AI or are earlier AI adopters?
For me, the first advantages are personalization and customization. AI can also allow a family office to operate with a smaller team while remaining agile, adaptable and responsive to highly specific needs. It reduces the time spent on repetitive work—few people want to spend their days manually entering numbers into an Excel spreadsheet.
Confidentiality is always a top priority in a family office.
Used properly, AI can help a smaller team remain flexible while maintaining greater control over how information is stored, used and presented. Family offices still need to think carefully about cloud-based software, external servers and the safeguards surrounding their data.
AI can also turn complex information that once sat in spreadsheets or specialized software into something easier for family members to understand, follow and use. In the past, preparing the same information for three people with different levels of knowledge might have taken a week. Now, a few well-designed prompts can produce tailored explanations that help each person understand the information and engage with it.
The technology offers enormous possibilities, but it also comes with limitations and important questions. Once you develop the skills to use it responsibly and understand what it is doing, it becomes another tool for achieving the outcome you want.
When it is used well, adopting AI is almost a no-brainer. The real opportunity is to keep refining how it is used and take it to the next level.
Helen Burnett-Nichols is a Hamilton, Ont.-based business and financial writer. For more than 20 years, she has covered investment, legal, wealth management, entrepreneurship, benefits and pensions, financial planning and personal finance topics for national and industry-focused publications. Prior to embarking on a freelance career, Helen held editorial roles in both Toronto and London, England.
Disclaimer: This story was created by Canadian Family Offices’ commercial content division on behalf of PBY Capital, a member and content provider of this publication.
PBY Capital Limited is registered as an exempt market dealer, portfolio manager and investment fund manager with Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities, servicing family offices and their professionals. For more information, visit: www.pbycapital.com. The opinions and information provided in this article are solely those of the interviewee and the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of PBY Capital or its affiliates. This content is not to be construed as personal, legal, accounting, taxation, or investment advice, nor as an endorsement of any entity.