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Network automation has been bred by the deployment of 5G based Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) in Industry 4.0, and further approaching pervasive AI and human-robot-interaction/-collaboration toward 6G based Industry 5.0. Hitherto, to the best of the authors knowledge, research efforts are still required to provide a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art network automation technologies for IIoT in 5G based Industry 4.0 and summary of challenges for next-generation network automation regarding the stricter network requirements of 6G based Industry 5.0. Therefore, in this article, we conduct a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art network automation technologies, standardizations, and corresponding impact on IIoT of Industry 4.0. We also forecast the next-generation network automation development toward 6G based Industry 5.0. This article provides blueprint of the next-generation network …