diff --git a/devito/arch/compiler.py b/devito/arch/compiler.py
index a8092e2fea..9f3721c46f 100644
--- a/devito/arch/compiler.py
+++ b/devito/arch/compiler.py
@@ -838,7 +838,7 @@ def __init_finalize__(self, **kwargs):
         language = kwargs.pop('language', configuration['language'])
 
         if language == 'sycl':
-            raise ValueError("Use SyclCompiler to jit-compile sycl")
+            raise warning("Use SyclCompiler to jit-compile sycl")
 
         elif language == 'openmp':
             # Earlier versions to OneAPI 2023.2.0 (clang17 underneath), have an