diff --git a/ingestion/src/metadata/utils/datalake/datalake_utils.py b/ingestion/src/metadata/utils/datalake/datalake_utils.py
index 70a8cc9c6cc..5e6d8dac074 100644
--- a/ingestion/src/metadata/utils/datalake/datalake_utils.py
+++ b/ingestion/src/metadata/utils/datalake/datalake_utils.py
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ class GenericDataFrameColumnParser:
             data_frame (DataFrame)
             column_name (string)
         """
-        data_type = None
+        data_type = None  # default to string
         try:
             if data_frame[column_name].dtypes.name == "object" and any(
                 data_frame[column_name].dropna().values
@@ -316,7 +316,7 @@ class GenericDataFrameColumnParser:
                 f"Failed to distinguish data type for column {column_name}, Falling back to {data_type}, exc: {err}"
             )
             logger.debug(traceback.format_exc())
-        return data_type
+        return data_type or DataType.STRING
 
     @classmethod
     def unique_json_structure(cls, dicts: List[Dict]) -> Dict: