We prove that any $q$-automatic completely multiplicative function $f:\mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{C}$ essentially coincides with a Dirichlet character. This answers a question of J. P. Allouche and L. Goldmakher and confirms a conjecture of J. Bell, N. Bruin and M. Coons for completely multiplicative functions. Further, assuming two standard conjectures in number theory, the methods allows for removing the assumption of completeness.