Once the 4M Data MCP is connected (see How to generate your MCP key and connect 4M to your AI tools), you can ask about utilities in plain language, right from your AI tool. Give an address, a landmark, a road segment, or a project boundary, and your AI tool turns it into an area for 4M.
Step 1: Ask About a Location
Type your question in your AI tool. For example:
"What utilities are at 701 Brazos Street, Austin, Texas, who owns them, and what's the risk?"
"Who owns utility infrastructure in my [project name] project? Group them by sector."
"Which utilities in this project run outside the right-of-way? Rank them by footage."
"How many safety-risk crossings are in this area?"
"Compare utility owners, ROW exposure, and crossings for these two corridor options."
Tip: ask your AI tool to show you the area before it runs the query, so you can confirm it picked the right place.
Step 2: Review the Answer
Your AI tool calls 4M and summarizes what comes back. A typical answer includes:
Utility owners by sector, such as electricity, gas, communication, water, and wastewater
Right-of-way exposure: how much line sits inside vs. outside the estimated ROW
Crossings between utilities, flagged as safety or environmental risks
A written risk summary that flags what to watch for in the area
Step 3: Keep Going With Follow-Up Questions
Stay in the same conversation to build on the answer. For example, ask your AI tool to turn the owner list into a table, group owners by sector, or draft an outreach email.
Contact details don't come from 4M. 4M returns owner names and sectors only. If your AI tool adds phone numbers, emails, or websites, it found them on its own, so double-check them before you use them.
Inside vs. Outside Your Projects
What you get depends on whether the area is inside one of your 4M projects:
Where you ask | What you get |
Inside your project | The full analysis: owners, right-of-way exposure, crossings, point object counts, and a risk summary |
Outside your projects | A risk summary for the area |
To get the full analysis for a new area:
Ask about the area, or share a shapefile with your AI tool, to get a risk summary.
If it's worth a closer look, ask your AI tool to create a 4M project for that area.
Once the project is created, ask your questions again to get the full analysis.
You can also create the project in 4Map by uploading a shapefile or drawing the boundary on the map. New projects are billed at your standard project rate.
Need access to the 4M Data MCP? Reach out to your account manager to get your organization set up.