xMap AI

Place classifier

Online maps name the same kind of place in many ways: coffee shop, espresso bar, cafe, roastery. Place classifier gives every place one clean category from a fixed list, either the xMap standard list or your own, and merges the places that came in twice. The result is a list you can count, filter, colour on a map and compare from one run to the next.

In the editor: Assigns clean categories and merges duplicate places.

Settings

Your categories

Text, several lines

Your own categories, one per line, such as your sales channels or store formats. Up to 60.

One per line (a single line separated by commas works too).

Needed before the flow can run.

Merge duplicates

On or off

When on, a place that came in twice is kept once: same place ID, or the same name within 60 metres. The two copies are merged, so no field is lost.

What comes out

Each item that leaves the block carries these fields, to use in the blocks after it as {{field}}.

Each place

Every place keeps all its fields and gets one more. With Merge duplicates on, a place found twice comes out once, with the fields of both copies.

clean_category: One category from the list you chose, always written exactly as in the list.

How to use it

FMCG distribution

Outlets in the distributor’s own channels

A food distributor covers three cities and plans its sales by channel: quick service, fine dining and cafes.

With a custom list every outlet lands in one of the distributor’s channels, so the sheet can be totalled by channel.

Banking and payments

Merchants by category, district by district

A bank planning a card-terminal push wants to know how many merchants of each kind are in each district.

Merge duplicates stops the same shop being counted twice when two searches find it.

Retail

Count the competition the same way every week

A supermarket chain tracks how many groceries and convenience stores open around its stores.

Before: The same shops turned up under five category names, so the weekly count jumped around.

With the flow: Every place has one clean category, so this week’s count can be compared with last week’s.

Real estate

The mix of shops around a plot

Clean categories give the AI a tidy list to describe: how many cafes, pharmacies and gyms, and what is missing.

Delivery apps

Restaurants by cuisine for the onboarding team

A delivery app sorts new restaurants into the cuisine groups its app shows to customers.

Each new restaurant arrives in the CRM already tagged with the cuisine group it will be listed under.

Marketing agencies

A clean category map for a client report

Filter can then pick categories by their clean name, whatever the map called each place.

Government and cities

An inventory of businesses in a district

A municipality keeps a list of the businesses in a regeneration district, by type, to plan permits and inspections.

Before: Staff merged lists by hand and argued over what counts as a restaurant.

With the flow: Each run gives one list, each business once, each with a type from the same fixed list.

Good to know

Up to 500 places a run are categorised, in batches of 25. Places past that keep their fields but get no clean_category, and the step says so.
An answer that is not one of your categories is dropped, so clean_category is always a value from the list. Add Other to a custom list for places that fit nothing.
The AI reads each place’s name, its map category and its city. Short or unusual names can be put in the wrong group, so check a few.
Merge duplicates compares place IDs, and names within 60 metres of each other. Two branches of a chain far apart are kept as two places.
In your account every run uses xMap AI, test runs too. The editor’s preview and the home-page builder show sample results.
Credits: 1 for each place it categorises.

Works well with

Map business scan: Finds businesses on online maps live: name, category, rating, address, phone, website and whether it is open.
POI Intelligence: Adds details to each place found by Map business scan: categories (cuisine), price level, opening hours, phone, website, amenities and a short description, and if you want them its latest reviews.
Filter: Keeps only the items that match a rule.
Branch: Splits items in two.
Show on a map: Shows the results as points on a map, with the area of interest.
xMap LLM: Tell the AI what to do in plain words.
Remove duplicates: Keeps one of each item when the same one arrives more than once, for example from two searches that overlap.
Sort and limit: Puts the items in order, and can keep only the first ones: the 10 best rated, the 20 nearest, the highest fit scores.

Templates that use it

New tenants in the malls I care about: New shops in the malls you care about, grouped by kind, every week.
New restaurants opening near my branches: New restaurants opening within 2 km of your branches, by cuisine, every week.
Monthly outlet census of my city: Every food outlet in your city, by channel, the ones not in your CRM, every month.
Cross-promotion partners around a client’s shop: Businesses around a client's shop that share its customers, each with a partnership message.
Hottest roles to source candidates for: Which roles employers in your city posted most this week, and which to source candidates for first.
Weekly road disruption report: A weekly road disruption report across your cities, for ops managers.
New businesses in the municipality: New businesses in the municipality by kind, every month.
New openings into my database: New openings saved to your own database every week, classified.
Weekly competitive intelligence for my cafes: Weekly competitive intelligence: every rival around your branches profiled, with a strategy note.
New outlets, graded and routed to each rep: New outlets graded, researched and routed to the nearest rep, with what to pitch at each.
Weekly city safety report: A weekly city safety report: incidents, people affected, hotspots investigated, actions.
Market entry study, refreshed monthly: A market entry study refreshed every month: size, chains, demand, the best areas and the risks.
New clinics for my medical reps, by specialty: New clinics in your territory every week, sorted by specialty and given to the nearest medical rep.
Health news in my markets, on a map: Outbreaks, clinic openings and medicine shortages from the news you follow, each on the map.
Destination report: the attractions visitors rate best: A monthly report on the attractions visitors rate best in three destinations.
New fuel stations in my region, by brand: New fuel stations in your region, sorted by brand, every week.
Where demand on the grid is growing: Where new buildings are adding load to the grid, with a planning note every month.
Where building is booming and suppliers are few: Where building is booming and building suppliers are few, with a market report.
Phone retail footprint across India: Phone shops across two big cities, by operator, brand and independent, with a report.
New spas in my city, by kind: New spas in your city, sorted by kind, every month.
Beauty market report: who clients rate best: A monthly beauty market report: what kinds of places clients rate best in two cities.
Monthly jobs story: who is hiring and what: A monthly jobs data story, sector by sector.
New venues for the events listings: New venues for the events listings, in a sheet every month.
New cinema screens for my film distribution team: Cinemas in your region, chain or independent, with the programmer.

And 54 more in the template gallery.

Stories with it

At every new restaurant before it settles in (Payments)
Two shopping streets, read every Monday (Retail property)
Where Lima buys phones, and has no store (Mobile retail)

Help articles

Clean categories and duplicates: Place classifier and Remove duplicates.

Guides and terms

Deduplication: Merging records that describe the same thing.

Try it

Build a flow with Place classifier on the home page, no account needed, or book a call. Try it live