The invention relates to an acrylonitrile hydration reaction process capable of automatically separating and circulating a catalyst, and the hydration reaction process comprises the following steps: metering a slurry-shaped copper or other metal catalyst, mixing with acrylonitrile and desalinated water, conveying the mixture to a filtering-type stirring reactor for catalyzing the reaction of acrylonitrile and desalinated water to generate acrylamide, separating the reaction product from the catalyst through the filter of the reactor, introducing the reaction product into a reaction liquid discharge tank, and refining to obtain a product; and discharging the catalyst to a spent catalyst storage tank, after restoring the activity of the catalyst through a spent catalyst regenerator and re-adding the regenerated catalyst to the reactor. By utilizing the method, continuous and stable acrylonitrile hydration reaction can be carried out at high conversion rate, the reaction liquid and the catalyst are automatically separated and the catalyst is continuously regenerated and recycled. Compared with the fixed bed acrylonitrile hydration reaction process, the process provided by the invention can be used for always maintaining a high activity level of the catalyst during the reaction, achieving continuous automatic separation of the catalyst and the reaction liquid in the reactor as well as the regeneration and recycling of the catalyst, and achieving the continuous production process.