diff --git a/.ci/pipeline-library/src/test/prChanges.groovy b/.ci/pipeline-library/src/test/prChanges.groovy
index f149340517ff0..0f354e7687246 100644
--- a/.ci/pipeline-library/src/test/prChanges.groovy
+++ b/.ci/pipeline-library/src/test/prChanges.groovy
@@ -97,4 +97,17 @@ class PrChangesTest extends KibanaBasePipelineTest {
 
     assertFalse(prChanges.areChangesSkippable())
   }
+
+  @Test
+  void 'areChangesSkippable() with plugin readme changes'() {
+    props([
+      githubPrs: [
+        getChanges: { [
+          [filename: 'src/plugins/foo/README.asciidoc'],
+        ] },
+      ],
+    ])
+
+    assertFalse(prChanges.areChangesSkippable())
+  }
 }
diff --git a/vars/prChanges.groovy b/vars/prChanges.groovy
index adaacf952b5b6..a7fe46e7bf014 100644
--- a/vars/prChanges.groovy
+++ b/vars/prChanges.groovy
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ def getNotSkippablePaths() {
   return [
     // this file is auto-generated and changes to it need to be validated with CI
     /^docs\/developer\/architecture\/code-exploration.asciidoc$/,
+    // don't skip CI on prs with changes to plugin readme files (?i) is for case-insensitive matching
+    /(?i)\/plugins\/[^\/]+\/readme\.(md|asciidoc)$/,
   ]
 }