diff --git a/src/v/config/configuration.cc b/src/v/config/configuration.cc
index 84179000d29b0..503616fdbdf64 100644
--- a/src/v/config/configuration.cc
+++ b/src/v/config/configuration.cc
@@ -2159,12 +2159,13 @@ configuration::configuration()
   , cloud_storage_azure_hierarchical_namespace_enabled(
       *this,
       "cloud_storage_azure_hierarchical_namespace_enabled",
-      "Whether or not Azure Hierarchical Namespaces are enabled on the "
-      "cloud_storage_azure_storage_account. If this property is not set, "
-      "cloud_storage_azure_shared_key must be set, and each node will try to "
-      "determine at startup if HNS is enabled. Setting this property to True "
-      "will disable the check and assume HNS is active. Setting to False will "
-      "disable the check and assume that HNS is not active.",
+      "Force Redpanda to use or not use an \"Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 "
+      "hierarchical namespace\" compliant client. When this property is not "
+      "set, each node infers at startup if HNS is enabled. When set to True, "
+      "this property disables the check and assumes HNS is enabled. When set "
+      "to False, this property disables the check and assumes HNS is not "
+      "enabled. This setting should be used only in emergencies where Redpanda "
+      "fails to detect the correct HNS status.",
       {.needs_restart = needs_restart::yes, .visibility = visibility::tunable},
       std::nullopt)
   , cloud_storage_upload_ctrl_update_interval_ms(