The digitalisation and automation of the judiciary, also known as judicial informatisation, (司法信息化) has been ongoing for two decades in China. The latest development is the emergence of “smart courts” (智慧法院), which are part of the Chinese party-state’s efforts to reform and modernise its governance capacity. These are legal courts where the judicial process is fully conducted digitally, and judicial officers make use of technological applications sustained by algorithms and big-data analytics. The end-goal is to create a judicial decision-making process that is fully conducted in an online judicial ecosystem where the majority of tasks are automated and opportunities for human discretion or interference are minimal. This article asks how the automation and digitalisation of judicial processes might influence judicial discretion and procedural flexibility? To answer this question, this article uses a dataset of primary documentary sources, namely the 2020 Annual Report on Informatisation of Courts, which contains numerous case-studies of automation and digitalisation initiatives by different courts undertaken as part of the ‘building smart courts’ policy. This is supplemented with judicial opinions and other official documents, secondary, and grey literature. The article argues that automation and digitalisation play a significant role in the centralisation of judicial power and increasing control and supervision over China’s courts. It aims to make courts more efficient and effective governance institutions by making judges more procedurally compliant and increasing the supervision over their work. In this sense, courts’ widespread embrace of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies is part of a broader movement in the PRC towards algorithmic governance, permeated by a firm belief in the power of technology and distrust of human discretion.