Categorize maintenance work orders with AI, the way your team already does

Two at once: one model can answer several parts together, for example problem type and team, because StayCharted models can give an answer with several parts. Several tags: if one work order can carry more than one category, a model with a list answer returns all that apply.

Start with whichever question your team answers most often, or gets most wrong.

• StayCharted: an Essentials or Business workspace, which includes the API that Zapier uses. Training works on every plan, Free included, so you can check the model's report before paying for anything.
• An API key: in StayCharted, Settings → API keys → Create key.
• Past work orders, exported as a spreadsheet: the description (and title, if you use one) plus the category you want the model to learn. A few hundred is a good start; aim for at least 20 to 50 per category, more for categories that look alike.
• For the MaintainX part: MaintainX's Zapier integration is on its Premium and Enterprise plans and is set up by an Administrator. On the Zapier side, a Zap with more than two steps needs a paid Zapier plan.

Use 20–50 examples per category as a pilot starting point, not an accuracy guarantee. Validate on work orders the model did not train on before automating decisions.

1. Clean the export a little. Keep the columns a person would read to decide: title and description, maybe the location. Drop the answer's give-aways: don't include the assignee as an input when you're teaching the team, or the asset ID when you're teaching the asset class.
2. Upload it in StayCharted (New model → upload a file), choose the description columns as what the model reads, and the category column as the answer.
3. Let StayCharted check the data. It flags rows that look like they belong in another category, the same text under two categories, and near-duplicates. "General" or "Other" used as a catch-all is the usual culprit: decide whether it's a real category or rows that need a proper one.
4. Train the AI Classifier Model first. It reads meaning, not just words, which can help it recognize related descriptions such as "seal weeping" and "leak at the gland". Check that in your test results.
5. Read the report per category. Look at how often it's right for each category, not only overall, and at the examples it got wrong. Those are often work orders your own team would argue about.
6. Publish the model when you're happy with it.

Add the StayCharted app in Zapier first (search for StayCharted in the Zap editor; see the Zapier guide for connecting your API key). Then build this Zap:

1. Trigger: MaintainX → New work order. Test it to pull in a sample work order.
2. Action: StayCharted → Classify Record. Choose your model. Its fields appear below: map the work order's title and description (whichever fields the model was trained on) from step 1. Test the step: you'll see the model's Answer, its Confidence and Needs Review.
3. Filter by Zapier: only continue if Needs Review is false. That way only answers above your model’s review cutoff are written back. Confidence is not a guarantee; sample automatic results too.
4. Action: MaintainX → Add Existing Categories to a Work Order. Map the work order ID from step 1, and map the Answer from step 2 to the corresponding existing category. If the action requires a category ID, use a lookup table to translate each label to its ID. Test with a sample work order before enabling the Zap.
5. Publish the Zap.

Keep your model’s answers aligned with your MaintainX categories. Check every label and its mapped category or ID. Start with Create Work Order Comment if you haven’t yet verified category mapping; it displays the suggestion without changing the category.

For the unsure ones, use Paths instead of the Filter: one path adds the category, the other uses MaintainX → Create Work Order Comment with something like "StayCharted suggests Leak (64% sure): please check the category." The same answers also wait in StayCharted's Review Queue, where a correction becomes a training example for the next version. Pick one place to review.

Priority or team instead of category? MaintainX’s Update Work Order action includes Priority and Team IDs. Map the model’s answers to the accepted values or IDs and test the update first. For fields the action does not expose, use a custom API request. Or start with a comment to put the suggestion in front of the person who triages.

The model doesn't care where the work order comes from:

• Any system that can call an API: send the work order's text to POST /api/v1/models/{id}/classify and write the answer back. See Developers.
• Power Automate: StayCharted's certified connector works the same way as the Zapier action, for systems already connected to Microsoft 365.
• A spreadsheet at a time: export last week's work orders, fill them in StayCharted, and import the categories back. Good for cleaning up a backlog of uncategorized history before you automate anything.

• It doesn't read photos in Zapier yet. The Classify Record action takes text. Photo models work through the API, files and AI assistants. See condition-based monitoring from photos.
• It doesn't diagnose. It categorizes the way your team did. A new failure mode needs examples before the model knows it.
• It doesn't learn from the Zap. Corrections made in MaintainX reach the model when you retrain on a fresh export, or through the Review Queue, whose corrections go into the next version.
• It doesn't replace triage for emergencies. Keep your safety rules as rules.

• MaintainX actions and triggers on Zapier
• MaintainX data retrieval and integration requirements
• Zapier plans

• Start free →
• Connect StayCharted to Zapier →
• Condition-based monitoring from photos →
• The condition-based monitoring solution →
• For developers: the API →