There is a certain degree of automation in the response to every click in a screen-based work. In a web context, the complexity of automation behind a click, ranges from loading another page, to performing a complex action, (perhaps in a database), or a query to a large knowledge base. Automation in Puppet Motel is evident from the moment one types a name and hears the zap. Where does the name go? How is it used? As one ventures from room to room, Puppet Motel keeps track of the rooms one has visited. When returning to the hall of time, icons floating up the middle of the hall are coloured according to whether a person has visited that room. The movements in the hall are also evidence of automation, and the ability to control it through interactive techniques. The speed of the movement of the wall can be modified by point and clicks to the rolling cube.

In Ugly-one-with-the-jewels there are 6 icons on the screen that can be dragged around. Dragging one object causes the other objects to move in relation to the one being manipulated. All objects move in different but related ways creating a feeling of complicated connectedness. The cereal pieces in the breakfast room example discussed earlier, utilize automation as they fall back into place when they are released.

Automation in the interactivity of Puppet Motel tends to be less about the complexity of processing behind interactive gestures and more about manipulating the parameters of a room. Processes are automated and the interaction causes aspects of the processes to change in interesting ways.