  Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) provides a huge body of knowledge of
automation for many different engineering tasks, especially those involving
transitioning from design to implementation. With the huge progress made on
Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, questions arise for the future of MDE
such as how existing MDE techniques and technologies can be improved or how
other activities which currently lack dedicated support can also be automated.
However, at the same time, it has to be revisited where and how models should
be used to keep the engineers in the loop for creating, operating, and
maintaining complex systems. To trigger dedicated research on these open
points, we discuss the history of automation in MDE and present perspectives on
how automation in MDE can be further improved and which obstacles have to be
overcome in the medium and long term perspective.
