diff --git a/semantic_router/index/pinecone.py b/semantic_router/index/pinecone.py
index 174fb49a64134be6c03e8247817ca02b913f28a8..91726e44480d0a19fce17c078186c28d51792cdf 100644
--- a/semantic_router/index/pinecone.py
+++ b/semantic_router/index/pinecone.py
@@ -799,7 +799,7 @@ class PineconeIndex(BaseIndex):
                 data.get("sr_utterance", ""),
                 (
                     json.loads(data["sr_function_schema"])
-                    if data["sr_function_schema"]
+                    if data.get("sr_function_schema", "")
                     else {}
                 ),
                 {