Many thanks to Ilana van Huyssteen-Meyer for joining our podcast series, "How AI is working, or not working, in the real world", and sharing her experience.
Ilana is founder of INC Capital, a boutique advisory firm guiding global investors through residency and citizenship.
Watch the conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rygj2EEe_-4
Contact Ilana on LinkedIn or visit inccapital.com.
How INC Capital cut its administrative burden by 50% with AI
When Ilana van Huyssteen-Meyer began looking for someone to handle routine finance work, she expected to hire a conventional personal assistant. Instead, she found Simone, an enthusiastic adopter of AI who could do far more than manage the books.
That decision changed how Ilana runs INC Capital. Around two years later, AI supports contracts, applications, quotations, calculations and other everyday processes, reducing the firm's administrative burden by an estimated 50%.
But Ilana is equally clear about what it cannot replace: expertise, judgement and the personal relationships on which her business depends.
Meet Ilana and INC Capital
INC Capital is a boutique advisory firm that guides global investors through residency and citizenship options.
Its founder, Ilana van Huyssteen-Meyer, is originally from Cape Town and has spent more than 20 years living and working internationally. That experience gives her a first-hand understanding of the practical, legal and personal considerations involved when people move between countries.
It is also a field where inaccurate information can have serious consequences. Ilana regularly encounters misleading material presented as fact, and the rapid growth of AI-generated content has made that problem more visible.
"If you ask the wrong questions, you get the wrong answers," she says. "We've seen a significant volume of AI-generated facts being published, which has been quite frustrating."
Starting with a real business problem
Ilana's adoption of AI did not begin with a company-wide transformation plan. It began with work she simply did not enjoy doing.
She was looking for a PA to take on some of the firm's finance administration when she interviewed someone who had built and used her own AI tools. Ilana realised that this combination of administrative ability and technical curiosity could deliver much more value to the business.
"The best thing I ever did was employ somebody who understands how to use it and can help me apply it in the business," she says.
Ilana started with ChatGPT before more recently introducing Claude into the business. The change has allowed the team to explore a broader range of tasks, including content, contracts and CRM-related processes.
The key was not mastering every new tool herself. It was having someone within the business who could identify useful technology, test it and help the rest of the team adopt it.
Saving around half the time spent on administration
AI now supports a wide range of routine work at INC Capital, including:
- Preparing, populating and sending agreements
- Completing applications
- Comparing possible solutions
- Producing quotations and calculations
- Identifying relevant jurisdictions and legislation
- Filing signed documentation
- Supporting content and CRM processes
Ilana estimates that this has reduced the firm's daily administrative burden by approximately 50%.
The benefit is not simply that individual tasks are completed faster. Processes that once involved several manual steps can now move from document preparation to signature and filing with much less intervention.
"I cannot spend the next six months trying to figure out how to maximise every AI tool in my business. My business is about people and relationships."
Where human expertise still matters
INC Capital operates across countries, legal systems and individual circumstances. While AI can help organise information and make processes more efficient, the firm still relies on specialist lawyers in multiple jurisdictions for legal advice and contractual work.
The same boundary applies to client relationships.
Ilana must understand who each client is, what they want to achieve and what concerns or constraints they face before recommending an appropriate route. AI can support what happens before and after that conversation, but it cannot take responsibility for the relationship itself.
"The consultation part is impossible to have with AI," she says. "I can use the technology in the background to facilitate the process and make things easier. But at the end of the day, it is still me speaking to clients."
Her experience illustrates an important distinction for professional services firms: automating administration is not the same as outsourcing professional judgement.
AI can improve work, but it can also make us lazy
Ilana believes AI has exceeded expectations in many areas. She has seen tools solve problems that would previously have required expensive or time-consuming manual work.
In one recent example, she discovered a small factual mistake in a video recorded on location. Rather than organising a reshoot, the editor used an AI tool to correct a few seconds of speech and synchronise the amended audio with her lip movements.
At the same time, Ilana is concerned that easy access to generated content is weakening original thought.
"It has made people lazy in terms of being creative and generating good content," she says. "People can write down two bullet points and get a two-page article, but that is not necessarily useful."
She has even changed her own writing style because punctuation she previously used naturally, particularly em dashes, has become associated with generic AI-generated copy.
The lesson is not to reject AI-generated content, but to apply judgement. Speed and volume are not substitutes for insight, accuracy or a recognisable human voice.
Advice for businesses adopting AI
- Start with a specific administrative problem rather than trying to change the entire business at once.
- Find someone who enjoys exploring technology and can translate new tools into practical business processes.
- Do not expect one product to suit every company or every task.
- Keep qualified professionals responsible for specialist legal, financial or regulated work.
- Use AI to support relationships, not replace them.
- Review generated facts carefully, particularly when clients may make important decisions based on them.
- Protect original thinking instead of using AI to produce content for its own sake.
Why this story matters
INC Capital's experience is a useful example of what AI adoption looks like inside a real small business.
There was no large transformation programme and no expectation that technology would replace the team. Ilana identified work that was consuming time, brought in someone capable of applying AI and expanded its use as the benefits became clear.
The result is significant: around half of the firm's administrative burden has been removed, allowing Ilana to spend more time on clients, relationships and the specialist work that creates value.
It also demonstrates why effective business AI requires more than access to a chatbot. Companies need the right tools, reliable information, clear processes and people who understand when human judgement must remain in control.