Bit late to the game with the reply here, but automation doesn't automatically make trading profitable or unprofitable. All a bot does is automate actions that a human would have usually taken; if that human is good and makes money, the bot can make money. If the person doesn't know how to trade, the bot won't make money. The issue being most bots don't make money because the people making them can't actually trade. They make money from the bots themselves.
What I'd recommend, and what I do personally, is forward test the free bots. I go on the MQL marketplace and run the top free bots as a forward test on demo accounts for a couple months using a VPS; the profitable ones get moved to small live, then larger live. Basically, treating each EA as if I've hired a person for a trading floor. The good ones are promoted, the bad ones are fired. And when possible, I try and get set files that are already tested as most the scams seem to come from people selling bots themselves, not the set files for existing bots. I use websites like OptSets and AlgoDatabase for them.
Paid bots, waste of time IMO. There isn't a paid bot that's going to have some secret super duper way of making massive profits. If that does happen, you can bet someone will clone it in about 42 seconds and undercut the guy, before someone else clones it again and makes it free. So stick to the free bots, test them, and either optimize them yourself or get some set files as a bit of a shortcut.