"done by automatic equipment," 1952, American English, adjective based on automation.
Entries linking to automated
automation n.
1948, in the manufacturing sense, "the large-scale use of automatic equipment in production," coined by Ford Motor Co. Vice President Delmar S. Harder, from automatic (adj.) + -ion. Earlier (1838) was automatism, which meant "quality of being automatic" in the classical sense.
automate v.
"to convert to automatic operation," 1954, back-formation from automated (q.v.). The ancient Greek verb automatizein meant "to act of oneself, to act unadvisedly." Related: Automating.