automate

/ˌɔdəˈmeɪt/

Other forms: automated; automating; automates

When you design a machine to complete a process once done by a human, you automate the process. Standardized tests once had to be graded by hand, now they're automated, i.e. done by computers.

If you automate a factory, workers might lose jobs to robots and machines. A century ago, if you did laundry, you had to turn the clothes in the drum by hand. It was really hard work, so hard that in many families one day was set aside as laundry day and everyone had to help. In 1937, the first electric, or automated, washer was sold, with a motor that turned the drum. Since then, the job has become much easier, though most of us still find it a chore.

Definitions of automate

1. verb

   make automatic or control or operate automatically
   “automate the movement of the robot”

   synonyms: automatise, automatize

   types:

   semi-automatise, semi-automatize

   make semiautomatic

   type of:

   alter, change, modify

   cause to change; make different; cause a transformation