Why don't colonies build buildings?

I have many of my colonies configured with "Automation: On", but in some cases, they don't build a building in cases when that is obviously needed?

For instance, a colony has 7 unemployed workers, 0 available jobs and housing. It is logical to upgrade a few buildings to make at least clerk jobs or increase amount of free housing. Why doesn't the AI take care of that?

Solution 1:

There is a very common "because it's broken" response that is often given in these cases. I can't say that it's impossible, but there are valid reasons for this to happen that are not related to AI decision making.

The first thing that comes to mind is checking whether the sector has access to enough resources that it can actually build anything. Via the Planets & Sectors menu, you can donate resources to the sector (or to a shared pool used by all sectors), which ensures that your AI governor can build things when it needs to.

As per 5AM's comment, a sector without a governor will also not build buildings.

Solution 2:

As of patch 2.7 it actually is mislabeled (At least in german language) Hitting the automatic on button does nothing. But hitting the automatic off button works, even when no Governor is selected. Seems like the Governors are only for the focuses(bonus perks)

This is what took most of my Stellaris learning time, frustrating. Just hit the button that says it deactivates automation and the automation starts ~.~

Edit: Was on a mashine intelligence playthrough, so i tested the same shit with one of the humanoid predefined nations this morning and there it actually works as intended ( Automation on turns it actually on) So this seems to be a problem within specfic nations or mashine intelligence....