His side secured first place with a dramatic 26-22 bonus-point victory over Ulster in Belfast, with wing Kyle Rowe crossing for the decisive try four minutes from time.
The Warriors will now host Connacht in the quarter-finals as they aim to replicate their 2024 title success.
"It's a tough season," said the South African Smith. "To stay on top of these teams is a massive achievement for my players, the club and the coaches. I am very happy. It's arguably the toughest competition this year that we've ever been part of.
"The players have worked really, really hard in terms of their effort. They got stuck in."
Reflecting on the hard-fought win over Ulster, Smith added: "We wanted five points out of this game. That was the mission. There is still a lot to work on. We got held up three times over the line. Executing those opportunities is going to be massive in play-off rugby.
"It's a case now of drawing a line under the season. We enjoyed it, fantastic, but it's now something of the past. The play-offs are quite different from the round robin."
Captain Kyle Steyn praised his team's resilience after the late victory in Belfast. "It went right down to the death, but how good. I don't think we've won here since 2013. We won, we got five points, we are top of the log, the boys dug deep, I couldn't be prouder. It feels good, but it doesn't mean anything if we don't go and get it done now."
Full-back Josh McKay also paid tribute to Ulster while highlighting Glasgow's growing belief ahead of the play-offs. "Full credit to Ulster, they are unreal. They go to the well for each other, that's for sure and that's obviously why they are in the Challenge Cup final. But we got through and we are stoked to finish first. There's definitely a belief in this team. We felt like we sort of lost a bit of what we are about over in South Africa and we've just been working super hard to try and get that back as we build into the play-offs."