In the present study, the effect of automated manufacturing induced gaps on the delamination initiation and propagation in thin composite plates under Low-Velocity Impact (LVI) is experimentally investigated. For this purpose, quasi-isotropic Carbon/Epoxy polymer composite plates have been manufactured with Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) process, including preset embedded gaps with an average of 8% of the gap percentage (Total volume of the gaps per volume of the composite plates before the curing process). An Instron impact machine has been used for performing the impact tests at three different levels of impact energies. Furthermore, the impact responses of the plates have been compared with the results of the baseline samples. The baseline is a similar sample that has been manufactured by hand layup technique. Results show that the induced defect can decrease the delamination threshold load of the composite plates under LVI loading. The projected pattern of the delamination caused by impact load was also measured by performing Ultrasonic C-Scan analysis for both baseline and samples with defects. Results reveal that induced manufacturing defects have a significant effect on the delamination pattern of the composite plates. Microscopic observation is further performed on the damage zone of the composite plates. It is shown that delamination initiation likely occurs in the gap area.