diff --git a/indexinglanguage/src/main/java/com/yahoo/vespa/indexinglanguage/expressions/EmbedExpression.java b/indexinglanguage/src/main/java/com/yahoo/vespa/indexinglanguage/expressions/EmbedExpression.java
index a0bbad879d1..e62aac1e52d 100644
--- a/indexinglanguage/src/main/java/com/yahoo/vespa/indexinglanguage/expressions/EmbedExpression.java
+++ b/indexinglanguage/src/main/java/com/yahoo/vespa/indexinglanguage/expressions/EmbedExpression.java
@@ -64,12 +64,13 @@ else if ( ! embedders.containsKey(embedderId)) {
     }
 
     @Override
-    public DataType setInputType(DataType type, VerificationContext context) {
-        super.setInputType(type, context);
-        if ( ! (type == DataType.STRING) &&
-             ! (type instanceof ArrayDataType array && array.getNestedType() == DataType.STRING))
+    public DataType setInputType(DataType inputType, VerificationContext context) {
+        super.setInputType(inputType, context);
+        if ( inputType != null &&
+             ! (inputType == DataType.STRING) &&
+             ! (inputType instanceof ArrayDataType array && array.getNestedType() == DataType.STRING))
             throw new VerificationException(this, "This requires either a string or array<string> input type, but got " +
-                                                  type.getName());
+                                                  inputType.getName());
         return getOutputType(context); // embed cannot determine the output type from the input
     }
 
diff --git a/indexinglanguage/src/main/java/com/yahoo/vespa/indexinglanguage/expressions/PackBitsExpression.java b/indexinglanguage/src/main/java/com/yahoo/vespa/indexinglanguage/expressions/PackBitsExpression.java
index a51b69ec7a4..66602c40355 100644
--- a/indexinglanguage/src/main/java/com/yahoo/vespa/indexinglanguage/expressions/PackBitsExpression.java
+++ b/indexinglanguage/src/main/java/com/yahoo/vespa/indexinglanguage/expressions/PackBitsExpression.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ public class PackBitsExpression extends Expression  {
 
     @Override
     public DataType setInputType(DataType inputType, VerificationContext context) {
+        if (inputType == null) return null;
         super.setInputType(inputType, context);
         if ( ! validType(inputType))
             throw new VerificationException(this, "Require a tensor with one dense dimension, but got " + inputType.getName());