How One Walton Graduate Used AI to Grow a Student Business

When Cameron Mercer started helping University of Arkansas students move out of their dorms during his freshman year, he was simply trying to make some extra spending money.

Four years later, the business he built from those early move-in and move-out jobs has grown into Boss Hog Moving Co., a student-focused moving company serving Northwest Arkansas. Mercer says the Master of Science in Product Innovation (MSPI) program at the Sam M. Walton College of Business helped him think differently about how to scale it.

“I have always enjoyed providing services to people,” said Mercer, who graduated in 2026 and now owns Boss Hog Moving Co. “I like making someone’s life better than it was before they met me. Hearing a parent or student say, ‘You took so much stress off our shoulders,’ or ‘We did not have to worry about anything,’ is what really drives me.”

Building a Business at the U of A

Mercer launched the company during the spring semester of his freshman year after recognizing a growing need among students living in residence halls like Reid and Maple Hill. Families often faced tight unloading windows, Arkansas summer heat and the logistical chaos that comes with thousands of students moving at the same time.

“On move-in day, families may only have 30 minutes to an hour to get their car unloaded, get everything into the dorm and move through a very hectic process,” Mercer said.

What started as a side hustle quickly gained momentum through word-of-mouth and posts in University of Arkansas parent Facebook groups. Mercer and his team helped students move into dorms, transport belongings to storage units and settle into apartments throughout Northwest Arkansas.

The company officially formed as Boss Hog Moving Co. in 2025. Mercer initially hoped to complete around 30 moves during the first official move-in season under the new brand. Instead, the company handled roughly 150 student moves in a matter of weeks.

Designing Systems for Growth

At the same time, Mercer was developing another side of his entrepreneurial skillset through Walton College’s MSPI program, which focuses on innovation, human-centered design and problem solving. The program’s emphasis on customer discovery and systems thinking aligned naturally with challenges Mercer was already experiencing while growing Boss Hog.

“The real challenge was figuring out how to scale the business in a way that stayed true to the mission while also building systems that could support growth,” Mercer said.

As operations expanded, Mercer realized many of the software platforms he relied on were not built for the unique complexity of student moving, storage coordination and communication management.

“We were constantly adapting our workflows around the software instead of building systems around the actual needs of the business,” he said.

That mindset began to shift through Walton faculty member Zach Steelman’s Development of Digital Innovation course, an emerging technologies class focused on digital innovation, AI integration and applied problem solving. The course will become a core requirement of the MSPI curriculum in future years as the program continues emphasizing innovation and emerging technologies.

“Instead of asking, ‘What software already exists for this?’ I started asking, ‘What would the ideal system for our business actually look like?’” Mercer said.

Boss Hog's custom-built CRM system.

That question led Mercer and teammate Toma Tominari to begin developing a custom CRM system designed specifically for Boss Hog’s operations. Before building the system, Mercer said they mapped the entire customer and operational journey, from scheduling and storage coordination to employee workflows and invoicing.

“That process taught me how important it is to deeply understand systems before trying to automate or improve them,” Mercer said.

Today, Boss Hog uses AI-supported workflows and custom-built systems to streamline communication, reduce repetitive administrative work and improve operational efficiency. But Mercer says one of the most important lessons from the course was understanding where human interaction still matters most.

“Moving is still a people business,” Mercer said. “The course helped me realize that AI is most powerful when it enhances human-centered businesses rather than replacing the human side altogether.”

Innovation Beyond the Classroom

Mercer credits both the University of Arkansas and Walton College with creating an environment where entrepreneurial students can test ideas, build businesses and connect with mentors across Northwest Arkansas’ growing startup ecosystem.

“One of the most impactful parts of the program has honestly been the people,” Mercer said. “The University of Arkansas and the MSPI program connected me with professors, entrepreneurs, MBA students, developers and business leaders who were incredibly willing to share advice, challenge my thinking and help me problem-solve.”

He said the collaborative nature of Northwest Arkansas’ entrepreneurial community helped make ambitious ideas feel more achievable.

“Before MSPI, a lot of the ideas I had around custom systems, AI integration and building operational software felt far away or unrealistic,” Mercer said. “Through the program, I started realizing that many of these things were actually possible to build myself with the right mindset, resources and network.”

Mercer says one of the biggest strengths of the MSPI program is the diversity of perspectives students bring into the classroom.

“In one class, you may be working alongside someone who has been in the workforce for 25 years, a director at a large company, someone in healthcare or real estate and then another student like myself who is fresh out of college building a startup from the ground up,” he said. “Everybody approaches problems differently, and you learn just as much from your peers as you do from the coursework itself.”

As Boss Hog continues to grow, Mercer says the lessons from MSPI continue shaping the company in real time.

“Whether it was human-centered design, customer discovery, AI integration, systems thinking or MVP development, I was not just studying concepts theoretically,” Mercer said. “I was actively implementing them into a company that was growing at the same time.”

About the Sam M. Walton College of Business: The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas is one of the nation's leading public business schools, serving more than 10,300 students across undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs. Through applied learning, impactful research, and deep industry partnerships, Walton prepares leaders to compete and innovate in a global economy.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $3 billion to Arkansas’ economy  through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.