Systems, methods, and computer program products for smart upload automation in which actions are automatically performed on a set of digital assets against a target item. In one embodiment, a system includes a network, a server machine, a client machine and a data storage device, each of which is coupled to the network. The client machine designates digital assets and a target item against which the assets will be uploaded. The digital assets are uploaded by the client machine to the data storage device via the network. The server machine automatically performs actions on the digital assets without intervention by the client machine, where the actions are associated with or in some way defined by the target item. The actions may include setting metadata values of the digital assets based upon metadata associated with the target item, or generating different renditions of the digital assets.