Microsoft’s plan to use the metaverse to animate decidedly unglamorous apps in factories and other industrial settings is starting to take shape.

Last week, Microsoft internally announced the formation of a new team, Industrial Metaverse Core, which plans to help customers create new immersive software interfaces to operate 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, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Bonsai enables mechanical or aerospace engineers to use machine learning to automate physical machinery or robots.