Universal guidelines for AI's use in the context of higher education remains unestablished. Despite this, doctoral students utilized AI to help in forming research ideas and with editing manuscripts. Thereby, the socialization of doctoral students into ethical AI use became imperative. This action research study had faculty and EdD students test AI tools to then make recommendations for guidelines on AI use for dissertation writing. Results showed AI use needed to be made clear and transparent alongside adopting a flexible approach to AI incorporation, given factors such as differing journal requirements. Furthermore, as doctoral students constituted novice researchers, they needed to realize that they would be responsible for AI's output. Keeping the doctoral identity at the forefront was core to advising doctoral students into the new era of responsible research.