What does Wi-Fi beamforming do?

Can you please explain in simple terms what exactly is Wi-Fi beamforming and how does it work? Is it something that improves the quality of our wireless connections or does it serve a different purpose altogether? Additionally, is it a new technology or has it been around for a while? And if it's the latter, how has it evolved over time to meet the demands of modern networks? I'm really curious to learn more about this and how it fits into the broader context of wireless networking.