This is a very important notion in my opinion, and it might be considered true for most people.
However, the actual ‘purpose’ wasn’t derived from the struggle for subsistence, in my opinion, but from contributing to something bigger. A purpose ‘beyond the individual’.
People have been culturally ingrained with a reward system that drived them to ‘work’. Subsistence or a ‘good life’ was established as the reward.
This has been the essence of the American dream, the idea that through hard work, determination, and perseverance, individuals from any social background can achieve upward social mobility and a higher standard of living.
For new generations however this system doesn’t add up and is more like an illusion. When children and youth are forced to ‘struggle’ their way into their future, they might feel very bad because of it.
Struggle for survival or ‘work’ might not provide purpose for new generations with their current outlook into the future, since there is no sense of a true light at the end of the struggle that has been the reward for past generations. There is no ability to ‘dream’ for them to overcome the various adversities inherent to the struggle.
So their best bet, as a generation, is to refrain from work and struggle, explaining the ‘extreme laziness’ behavior as captured in the disconnected youth movement phenomenon.
In my opinion, new generations should find a sense of urgency to secure their basic security so that they can provide themselves with an opportunity to acquire meaning and purpose in authentic new ways beyond the imagination of past generations. They would be pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps like past generations, but the scope of ‘effort’ (struggle) would move to different dimensions, which could be moral and intellectual dimensions.
What does it mean to exist as a human? Why should humans receive opportunities to prosper? These are philosophical questions that might on short term stand to become a primary concern for the human species.
I am still waiting for a reply to explain your notion of 
AI species 