diff --git a/docs/reference/settings/ml-settings.asciidoc b/docs/reference/settings/ml-settings.asciidoc
index 2ac248d5ea8e7..1077a63b00249 100644
--- a/docs/reference/settings/ml-settings.asciidoc
+++ b/docs/reference/settings/ml-settings.asciidoc
@@ -10,9 +10,12 @@
 // tag::ml-settings-description-tag[]
 You do not need to configure any settings to use {ml}. It is enabled by default.
 
-IMPORTANT: {ml-cap} uses SSE4.2 instructions, so it works only on machines whose
-CPUs {wikipedia}/SSE4#Supporting_CPUs[support] SSE4.2. If you run {es} on older
-hardware, you must disable {ml} (by setting `xpack.ml.enabled` to `false`).
+IMPORTANT: {ml-cap} uses SSE4.2 instructions on x86_64 machines, so it works only
+on x86_64 machines whose CPUs {wikipedia}/SSE4#Supporting_CPUs[support] SSE4.2.
+(This limitation does not apply to aarch64 machines.) If you run {es} on older
+x86_64 hardware, you must disable {ml} (by setting `xpack.ml.enabled` to `false`).
+In this situation you should not attempt to use {ml} functionality in your cluster
+at all.
 
 // end::ml-settings-description-tag[]
 
@@ -46,7 +49,18 @@ that you use the default value for this setting on all nodes.
 +
 If set to `false`, the {ml} APIs are disabled on the node. For example, the node
 cannot open jobs, start {dfeeds}, receive transport (internal) communication
-requests, or requests from clients (including {kib}) related to {ml} APIs.
+requests, or requests from clients (including {kib}) related to {ml} APIs. If
+`xpack.ml.enabled` is not set uniformly across all nodes in your cluster then you
+are likely to experience problems with {ml} functionality not fully working.
++
+You must not use any {ml} functionality from ingest pipelines if `xpack.ml.enabled`
+is `false` on any node. Before setting `xpack.ml.enabled` to `false` on a node,
+consider whether you really meant to just exclude `ml` from the `node.roles`.
+Excluding `ml` from the <<node-roles,`node.roles`>> will stop the node from
+running {ml} jobs and NLP models, but it will still be aware that {ml} functionality
+exists. Setting `xpack.ml.enabled` to `false` should be reserved for situations
+where you cannot use {ml} functionality at all in your cluster due to hardware
+limitations as described <<ml-settings-description,above>>.
 
 `xpack.ml.inference_model.cache_size`::
 (<<static-cluster-setting,Static>>) The maximum inference cache size allowed.