Technologies and processes which perform online actions in order to achieve a specific goal.
See also: Bot / Bot Account, Spam
Commentary:
- Automation may be used for legitimate ends (as when using an Application Programming Interface, or API), or for abuse such as by bot accounts, spammers, and astroturfing.
- It may be particularly useful in helping to scale and speed up decisions that are binary in nature, whereas more nuanced decision-making may require at least some human involvement.
- Automation can be deployed along a spectrum from full automation, requiring no human intervention when operating within parameters, to partial automation, which may involve human intervention as part of the system’s feedback loop.