diff --git a/build_tools/azure/install.sh b/build_tools/azure/install.sh
index 8fd9b0b9cc67f..baa1da332f8a5 100755
--- a/build_tools/azure/install.sh
+++ b/build_tools/azure/install.sh
@@ -147,7 +147,9 @@ fi
 if [[ "$TEST_DOCSTRINGS" == "true" ]]; then
     # numpydoc requires sphinx
     python -m pip install sphinx
-    python -m pip install numpydoc
+    # TODO: update the docstring checks to be compatible with new
+    # numpydoc versions
+    python -m pip install "numpydoc<1.2"
 fi
 
 python --version