Microsoft’s plan to use the metaverse to spice up decidedly unglamorous applications in factories and other industrial settings is beginning to take shape.

Last week, Microsoft internally announced the formation of a new team, Industrial Metaverse Core, that plans to help customers create immersive new software interfaces for operating the industrial control systems behind electrical power plants, industrial robotics and transportation networks.

The group’s offerings for industrial customers will include technology from Bonsai, a startup Microsoft acquired in 2018. Bonsai was developing a general-purpose application development service and simulation software that noncoders could use to add machine learning to industrial systems, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.