diff --git a/lib/Conversion/AIEToConfiguration/AIEToConfiguration.cpp b/lib/Conversion/AIEToConfiguration/AIEToConfiguration.cpp
index 4cf93cd63b2..a2fd9b1fd35 100644
--- a/lib/Conversion/AIEToConfiguration/AIEToConfiguration.cpp
+++ b/lib/Conversion/AIEToConfiguration/AIEToConfiguration.cpp
@@ -642,10 +642,15 @@ static LogicalResult convertTransactionOpsToMLIR(
   // device level
   std::vector<memref::GlobalOp> global_data;
   {
-    DeviceOp device =
-        llvm::dyn_cast<DeviceOp>(builder.getBlock()->getParentOp());
+    Operation *parentOp = builder.getBlock()->getParentOp();
+    DeviceOp device = llvm::dyn_cast<DeviceOp>(parentOp);
     if (!device) {
-      device = builder.getBlock()->getParentOp()->getParentOfType<DeviceOp>();
+      device = parentOp->getParentOfType<DeviceOp>();
+    }
+    if (!device) {
+      parentOp->emitError(
+          "expected insertion point to be nested under an aie.device op");
+      return failure();
     }
     OpBuilder::InsertionGuard guard(builder);
     builder.setInsertionPointToStart(device.getBody());