diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/mapper/SemanticTextFieldMapper.java b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/mapper/SemanticTextFieldMapper.java
index 83c81ebd0e0cf..241caf33fb5bb 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/mapper/SemanticTextFieldMapper.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/mapper/SemanticTextFieldMapper.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.vectors.SparseVectorFieldMapper;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.SearchExecutionContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.search.ESToParentBlockJoinQuery;
+import org.elasticsearch.inference.InferenceResults;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.inference.results.TextExpansionResults;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -110,10 +111,18 @@ public Query termQuery(Object value, SearchExecutionContext context) {
             return sparseVectorFieldType.termQuery(value, context);
         }
 
-        public Query textExpansionQuery(TextExpansionResults expansionResults, SearchExecutionContext context) {
+        public Query semanticQuery(InferenceResults inferenceResults, SearchExecutionContext context) {
+
+            if (inferenceResults instanceof TextExpansionResults == false) {
+                throw new IllegalArgumentException(
+                    "field [" + name() + "] does not use a model that outputs sparse vector inference results"
+                );
+            }
+
+            TextExpansionResults textExpansionResults = (TextExpansionResults) inferenceResults;
             String fieldName = name() + "." + "inference";
             BooleanQuery.Builder queryBuilder = new BooleanQuery.Builder();
-            for (var weightedToken : expansionResults.getWeightedTokens()) {
+            for (var weightedToken : textExpansionResults.getWeightedTokens()) {
                 queryBuilder.add(
                     new BooleanClause(
                         FeatureField.newLinearQuery(fieldName, indexedValueForSearch(weightedToken.token()), weightedToken.weight()),
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/queries/SemanticQueryBuilder.java b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/queries/SemanticQueryBuilder.java
index 1f3c67d08d817..1acf46e795daf 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/queries/SemanticQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/queries/SemanticQueryBuilder.java
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamOutput;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.AbstractQueryBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilder;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilders;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryRewriteContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.SearchExecutionContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.inference.InferenceResults;
@@ -125,16 +124,10 @@ protected Query doToQuery(SearchExecutionContext context) throws IOException {
         }
 
         InferenceResults inferenceResults = inferenceResultsList.get(0);
-        if (inferenceResults instanceof TextExpansionResults expansionResults) {
-            SemanticTextFieldMapper.SemanticTextFieldType mapper = (SemanticTextFieldMapper.SemanticTextFieldType) context.getFieldType(
-                fieldName
-            );
-            return mapper.textExpansionQuery(expansionResults, context);
-        }
-
-        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
-            "field [" + fieldName + "] does not use a model that outputs sparse vector inference results"
+        SemanticTextFieldMapper.SemanticTextFieldType mapper = (SemanticTextFieldMapper.SemanticTextFieldType) context.getFieldType(
+            fieldName
         );
+        return mapper.semanticQuery(inferenceResults, context);
     }
 
     @Override