Once the learning curve is over, it will often be quicker than manual testing

Learning this new skill of automating your tests will take a while, no doubt about that. But, once mastered, conceiving and creating them will often be much quicker than doing the thing manually, as tests often are variations of each other. Copying and pasting with code is ... well ... can you do such a thing with manual testing? Not to mention re-running these automated tests or the manual tests.