There are more than a few ways to automate interactions in Maya, especially when rigging a character. One of the methods, which is probably the easiest is to use Pose Space Deformers along with Driven Keys.
Showing how easy all that can be to set up, is a post from Rooster Teeth’s Rigging Artist, Gio Coutinho. Maya recently added a Pose Space deformation workflow in Maya 2016 Extension release. It allows you to fix skin deformation issues when in a certain pose. Using Maya’s Set Drive Keys, you can trigger the pose space deformers when a rotation happen in the character’s limb.