diff --git a/src/core/server/execution_context/execution_context_config.ts b/src/core/server/execution_context/execution_context_config.ts
index 0f63952d5cfa9..af6e7253433f7 100644
--- a/src/core/server/execution_context/execution_context_config.ts
+++ b/src/core/server/execution_context/execution_context_config.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import { TypeOf, schema } from '@kbn/config-schema';
 import { ServiceConfigDescriptor } from '../internal_types';
 
 const configSchema = schema.object({
-  enabled: schema.boolean({ defaultValue: false }),
+  enabled: schema.boolean({ defaultValue: true }),
 });
 
 /**
diff --git a/test/plugin_functional/config.ts b/test/plugin_functional/config.ts
index 5b74463703797..4a96b2b402898 100644
--- a/test/plugin_functional/config.ts
+++ b/test/plugin_functional/config.ts
@@ -60,7 +60,6 @@ export default async function ({ readConfigFile }: FtrConfigProviderContext) {
         '--corePluginDeprecations.noLongerUsed=still_using',
         // for testing set buffer duration to 0 to immediately flush counters into saved objects.
         '--usageCollection.usageCounters.bufferDuration=0',
-        '--execution_context.enabled=true',
         ...plugins.map(
           (pluginDir) => `--plugin-path=${path.resolve(__dirname, 'plugins', pluginDir)}`
         ),
diff --git a/x-pack/test/functional_execution_context/config.ts b/x-pack/test/functional_execution_context/config.ts
index 6c7935593a18d..a934b6e763437 100644
--- a/x-pack/test/functional_execution_context/config.ts
+++ b/x-pack/test/functional_execution_context/config.ts
@@ -43,7 +43,6 @@ export default async function ({ readConfigFile }: FtrConfigProviderContext) {
         `--elasticsearch.ssl.certificateAuthorities=${CA_CERT_PATH}`,
 
         '--server.requestId.allowFromAnyIp=true',
-        '--execution_context.enabled=true',
         '--logging.appenders.file.type=file',
         `--logging.appenders.file.fileName=${logFilePath}`,
         '--logging.appenders.file.layout.type=json',